The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the first fatal crash involving Tesla Motors’ (ticker: TSLA) Model S self-driving car.
Joshua D. Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio, died May 7 in Williston, Florida, the Associated Press reports.
In a statement, Tesla says that the autopilot function was enabled at the time of the crash. A tractor-trailer drove perpendicular to the Tesla Model S on a divided highway, and both the driver and autopilot didn’t see the tractor-trailer’s white side. Therefore, both the driver and Autopilot failed to put on the brake. A combination of this plus the tractor-trailer’s height and road positioning led to these “rare circumstances,” the company says.
The tractor-trailer driver, Frank Baressi, 62, tells the Associated Press that when he went to the wrecked Tesla, he could hear the audio from a “Harry Potter” film playing “on the TV screen,” though Tesla said its Model S touch screen doesn’t have that capability.
Upon autopilot activation, drivers receive a message that it “is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times,” among other reminders.
Tesla said that there’s one fatality per 94 million miles in the U.S. and 60 million across the world, and that the NHTSA’s investigation is a preliminary check on the system’s functionality.
Tesla stock has had a difficult year, dropping 12 percent since January and nearly 22 percent in the last 12 months. TSLA stock was trading at less than $211 Friday morning, down 0.6 percent.
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Operator in Fatal Tesla S Crash Reportedly Was Listening to ‘Harry Potter’ originally appeared on usnews.com
