Investigators say Tesla car was speeding at time of crash

Data downloaded from the Tesla Model S shows the vehicle was traveling at 74 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone on a divided highway in Williston, Florida, near Gainesville, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.

The National Transportation Safety Board report found that Joshua Brown was driving 74 miles per hour in a 65 miles per hour zone prior to striking a tractor-trailer.

The NTSB said the driver was using the advanced driver assistance features called Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane keeping assistance.

The vehicle is equipped with automatic emergency braking. While no timeline has been established, final reports are generally published 12 months after the release of a preliminary report, the NTSB release said.

Writing about autonomous vehicle technology, Musk wrote that all Tesla vehicles would “have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability, meaning that any given system in the auto could break and your auto will still drive itself safely”.

The factory is crucial to meeting Tesla’s goal of going from a niche maker of luxury vehicles to a full-line maker of affordable cars, pickups and semi trucks.

The NTSB report said the force of the initial impact of the crash resulted in the battery disengaging from the electric motors powering the vehicle.

It’s Tesla Motors’ biggest bet yet: A massive, $5 billion factory in the Nevada desert that could nearly double the world’s production of lithium-ion batteries by 2018.

“The combination vehicle – operated by Okemah Express, LLC – was transporting blueberries to a local produce farm”.

Right side of semitrailer hit by self-driving Tesla in Florida crash May 7, 2016.

Damage from the collision was consistent with a 90-degree angle of impact, the NTSB said. This will be made possible for Tesla owners who add their vehicle to the Tesla shared fleet through a smartphone app. Musk envisions people’s cars generating income while the owners are at work or on vacation.

She said the police force is still considering whether to issue a traffic citation to the truck driver for failing to yield.

A preliminary report by federal regulators on the fatal crash of a Tesla Motors (TSLA) vehicle in Florida does not state the probable cause for the crash, and the cause might not be known for a year.

Tesla said the Autopilot system, introduced a year ago, is not a fully autonomous system and that drivers are cautioned that they need to be at the wheel and in control.

“All aspects of the crash remain under investigation”.