Tesla Confirms Autopilot Active During Fatal California Highway Crash
Tesla confirms a fatal March crash in Mountain View, California, occurred while the vehicle's autopilot feature was actively engaged. The company notes the driver received multiple warnings before the collision and blames a missing highway safety barrier for the severity of the impact.
Tesla confirms that its Autopilot system is active during a fatal crash on a California highway. The incident takes place on March 23 on U.S. Highway 101 near Mountain View and results in the death of 38-year-old Apple engineer Walter Huang. The National Transportation Safety Board launches an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the accident.
According to a statement from Tesla, the vehicle's adaptive cruise control follow-distance is set to minimum at the time of the collision. The company reveals that the driver receives several visual warnings and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive, and his hands are not detected on the steering wheel for six seconds prior to the crash.
Tesla shifts some of the blame for the severity of the accident onto the highway infrastructure. The automaker states that a crash attenuator, a safety barrier designed to reduce the impact into a concrete lane divider, is crushed in a previous accident and not replaced. Tesla claims it has never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash.