Tesla is again facing questions about Autopilot after an accident. KHOU, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that two men were killed after a 2019 Model S crashed into a tree north of Houston and no one was in the driver’s seat. The one was on the front passenger seat, said Const. Mark Herman told the media while the other one was behind.
It is not yet certain if Autopilot was active at the time of the crash. The men were not identified, but one was 59 years old while the other was 69 years old.
We asked Tesla and the NHTSA for comment.
If the Model S was truly driverless, the incident indicates that the occupants misunderstood the traffic plane, the complete self-driving, or both. There has long been concern that customers are overestimating the technology and accepting that they could take their hands off the steering wheel or even leave the driver’s seat altogether. However, even the FSD beta does not offer complete autonomy, and you should be ready to take control at any moment – the car will ask you to grab the wheel if you leave it alone long enough.
The accident is also a reminder that emergency crews have yet to fully adapt to electric cars and their large lithium batteries. Constable Herman said the initial response took about four hours to put out the Model S fire, and the team even contacted Tesla for help. This does not make EVs more dangerous by design, but it does suggest that it may take a while before firefighters can handle these cars as quickly as their gas-fueled counterparts.
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