Tesla crash a harbinger of industry fears

According to Tesla, he was driving his Model S along the highway with the Autopilot feature engaged.

Following the crash, the NHTSA announced that it has now opened a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot.

The driver of the truck was quoted by the AP saying that the Tesla driver was watching Harry Potter on the TV screen while the accident happened and the auto rammed into the trailer, with no attempts made by the autopilot or the rider to pull up. “The vehicle snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road”. He told the AP, however, that he heard the movie but didn’t see it. In Washington, the Pentagon confirmed Brown’s work with the SEALs and said he left the service in 2008. 24 of the 26 videos on that channel featured Brown behind the wheel with Autopilot turned on, and one of those videos, “Autopilot Saves Model S”, showed an especially close call where the feature had actually prevented a side collision from a boom lift truck. He published a video of the incident online. The statement added that Tesla disables the Autopilot feature “by default and requires explicit acknowledgment that the system is new technology and still in a public beta phase before it can be enabled”.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, tweeted his condolences regarding the “tragic loss”, but the company’s statement deflected blame for the crash.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is investigating accident.

Firefighters who attended the scene on May 7 in Williston, Florida, found Mr Brown’s vehicle hundreds of yards from the crash site and with its roof completely taken off.

While autonomous vehicle technology isn’t flawless, and may never be, most experts agree that it has the potential to be far, far safer than human drivers.

Tesla says that when the Autopilot is on, the vehicle keeps reminding drivers to have their hands on the wheel at all times, thus, limiting unexpected and perilous situations.

Autopilot checks to make sure a driver’s hands are on the wheel, and it gives visual and audible alerts if they aren’t.

The 2015 Tesla Model-S uses camera, radars and sensors to drive on highways and change lanes and speed. It can apply brakes automatically and slow the vehicles.

Tesla said Autopilot “results in a statistically significant improvement in safety”.

Following the death of a man who was killed when his self-driving Tesla vehicle crashed in Florida, a U.S. national traffic safety body is opening a preliminary investigation. Self-driving cars are expected to eliminate human errors that are responsible for 94 percent of crashes.

“As to the video, there was a witness who came to the scene immediately after the accident occurred, and we can’t verify it at this point”, said Paul Weekley of Tampa, the lawyer for the truck driver. But it does not have the ability to download information from Tesla’s data system, Montes said.

The family statement released Friday through a personal injury law firm said Brown was passionate about technological advancement.

According to an accident report the crash happened on a dry road in daylight near Williston, Florida.

“It’s more like an advanced cruise control”, he said. “This situation flies in the face of both”.