Two men were killed near Houston, Texas, on Saturday when they drove into a 2019 Tesla Model S that, according to local authorities, drove into a bend and eventually got off the road and crashed into a tree. It took first responders four hours and more than 30,000 gallons of water to put out the fire, which caught fire again; if damaged, the lithium-ion batteries in electric motors can cause fires that are very difficult to extinguish due to how they store energy. Authorities reportedly tried to ask Tesla for advice on how to put out the fire, but it is unclear if they finally got help.
Other than the fire, there was something disturbing about the accident: no one was in the driver’s seat. One of the men was in the passenger seat and the other one in the back. There was no official confirmation that they used the car’s “autopilot” feature – something that is loved by many Tesla owners and which, according to critics of the company, is marketed in an unsafe way. function before leaving for their ride.
Unlike the systems that companies like Google and Uber have been developing and testing for years, Tesla’s autopilot is not completely autonomous, although it does accelerate, drive and brake the cars themselves. The company warns drivers that they should sit behind the wheel and pay attention in case the system makes a mistake and they need to intervene. Nevertheless, there were a number of serious accidents involving the autopilot function. For example, a man died in 2018 while using the autopilot in California; data from his phone indicates that a video game was active on the device. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also confirmed to the New York Times in March that it is currently investigating the potential role of Tesla’s autopilot in 23 accidents. Since the autopilot function does not completely take over for a driver, Teslas has a number of safety mechanisms aimed at ensuring that its customers are present and vigilant while in the car. (Meanwhile, critics say it’s merely a dangerous misnomer to call the feature ‘autopilot’, and that it may have other safety features, such as eye tracking.) The autopilot checks to see if anyone is in the driver’s seat, or the seat belt on, and that a hand is on the steering wheel. So how can someone drive a Tesla without someone behind the wheel?
Although the exact circumstances of the Texas crash have not yet been revealed, it is known that some Tesla users filmed themselves without a driver in their cars, mainly in a foolish attempt to influence social media. One particularly controversial video from October last year shows a man filming the empty driver’s seat of his Tesla while driving down the highway. A TikTok star also posted a clip of himself in January in which he sleeps in the back of his Tesla and no one drives. Do a search on YouTube or Google and you will find many other examples. These types of videos tend to receive harsh backlash from other Tesla owners, indicating that they are a dangerous example. While it is not always clear whether misleading film editing can possibly create the illusion that no one is thinking about the steering wheel, it is sometimes possible to watch from the videos how these prospective stunt people circumvent the safety mechanisms. One simple solution is to simply fasten the seat belt without tying anyone behind it.
Another hack involves using a device that misleads the autopilot system into thinking someone’s hand is at the wheel. If a Tesla does not put any pressure on the steering wheel, the car’s screen will normally start flashing and emit audible warnings. If the driver still does not grip the wheel, the autopilot will deactivate itself. However, several companies sell magnetic weights that can hold people to the wheel and simulate the pressure. The NHTSA has previously issued termination orders to companies that manufacture such products, although it can still be easily found on Amazon.
There also seem to be ways to bypass the sensor that the car uses to ensure that someone is sitting in the driver’s seat. Jalopnik reported that the driver’s seat apparently uses a simple on / off sensor instead of a pressure sensor that constantly checks to see if there is any weight on the seat, so it can be fairly easy to be misled. A video on YouTube channel Dirty Tesla investigating Tesla’s auto pilot while in a parking lot provides evidence for the theory. In the video you can see an owner taking a motorboat while he is still on the seat. After turning on the autopilot, however, it appears to stop checking the driver’s weight, as he can climb out of the seat without switching it off. This, coupled with the seat belt solution, allows the Tesla to drive on the steering wheel, even after leaving the car.
Tesla, which dissolved its press shop, did not comment on the incident. On Saturday, before the crash, CEO Elon Musk said tweeted again a report on the safety of the company and boasts: ‘Tesla with Autopilot is now ten times more likely to reach accidents than the average vehicle.’ The NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that they are sending investigators to the Houston crash site, in part to determine if an auto pilot has been deployed.
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