Tesla Defends Autopilot Again After A Fatal Model X Crash

Elon Musk has defended Tesla’s publication of investigation data following a fatal crash that happened while a Model X was driving on Autopilot.

Despite the whole world knowing that Autopilot is not a foolproof self-driving system and was never designed to be, Apple engineer Wei Huang reportedly refused to grab the wheel even after his car had issued several ‘take control’ warnings.

The accident occurred on 23 March, when the Model X struck a California Route 101 concrete lane divider head-on between a slip road and the main carriageway, causing massive damage to the car and fatal injuries to Mr Huang.

According to details released by Tesla, Mr Huang had received several warnings to retake control of the car, a process one fellow Tesla owner has suggested could have been caused by bright sunlight and ‘cut lines’ on the road that could have been mistaken for lane markings, confusing the car and triggering it to call upon the human driver.

After harvesting the car’s data, Tesla issued a blog post saying that the driver had “about five seconds and 150 metres of unobstructed view of the concrete divider.” The crash, which utterly destroyed the front of the car, was made much worse because the crash attenuator, a sort of crumple zone for the concrete, had been crushed in a previous accident and not replaced.

Tesla’s statement explained what the official investigation into the crash had found, clearly protecting its interests in terms of stressing that, while its level two autonomous systems are far from perfect, they were not directly at fault. The National Transportation Safety Board – an advisory body – had voiced its displeasure at Tesla’s release of the details.

Now Elon Musk has responded with a tweet putting the body in its place, pretty much asking the NTSB to stop butting into the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s business regarding autonomous driving.

The bottom line seems to be that it doesn’t matter what kind of autonomous car you’re driving. You, the human driver, need to stay alert and ready to take control at all times.

Sources: Elektrek, The Verge, Teslarati