Two men died after a Tesla vehicle, according to authorities, worked without anyone crashing into a tree in the driver’s seat north of Houston on Saturday night.
One of the men was in the front passenger seat and the other one in the back seat of the Tesla, which was traveling at high speed along an arch before hitting a tree at 11:25 p.m., Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said in an interview.
“Our preliminary investigation determined – but it has not yet been completed – that no one was driving the vehicle,” the constable said. “We are almost 99.9% sure.”
It took emergencies about four hours and about 32,000 gallons of water to put out the fire that engulfed the electric vehicle, Constable Herman said. High-voltage batteries such as those used in Teslas can burn again after being damaged, even after firefighters put out a fire, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
On Sunday, authorities are still investigating whether the front passenger airbag was deployed and whether the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system was switched on during the accident. Not Tesla Inc. TSLA does not,
nor did the National Road Safety Administration, the leading U.S. car safety regulator, respond to requests for comment.
An extensive version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Also popular on WSJ.com:
Evergreen looks at the movement of cargo from Suez ship seized.
The family heirlooms our children do not want.