NTSB Investigating After A Tesla Slammed Into Fire Engine At 65mph
What you see above is the shocking aftermath of a Tesla Model S ploughing into the back of a fire engine on the Interstate 405 in Southern California. Despite the car hitting the engine - which was attending a motorcycle crash - at 65mph, Culver City Firefighters amazingly reported that all involved escaped injury.
It’s not known whether the car was in Autopilot mode at the time of the wreck on Tuesday, but the incident has caught the attention of the NTSB. The organisation posted on Twitter yesterday to state that it was dispatching two investigators “to conduct a field investigation.”
You might remember the NTSB having some strong words about Tesla’s Autopilot during the investigation of the Model S crash that claimed the life of Joshua D. Brown. Its report conceded that slowing down for the lorry Brown hit wasn’t something the Autopilot was designed for, but still criticised the system as it “allowed prolonged disengagement from the driving task and enabled the driver to use it in ways inconsistent with manufacturer guidance and warnings.”
When asked for comment by news agency Reuters, Tesla declined to comment on this latest investigation.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I bet autopilot was on and the driver was texting.
Even though the Tesla is pretty stiff, that is not a 65 mph to standstill crash.
Autopilot developed a glitch lmao
Surely people will blame the autopilot for it. They shouldn’t forget that it’s still you who are driving the car, the autopilot merely assists you. You are supposed to keep attention to the road still.
People are just lazy and want the electronics to do all the things for them rather than making an effort themselves. And when something does go wrong, they blame the manufacturer for the fault even if the company had disclosure agreements with you about the product that you bought citing it’s use and hazards.
Autopilot is dangerous.
People misuse it though, and the debate is whether or not Tesla is doing enough to discourage and/or prevent misuse. Hence our inclusion of the NTSB quotes from the last investigation.
Plus, calling something which is a driver assistance system (albeit a clever one) ‘Autopilot’ in the first place arguably makes the thing sound like it’s more capable than it actually is
Perhaps what needs to happen is for Tesla to disable Autopilot for the masses until common sense returns. Elon that giveth away taketh away.
You re right but Tesla is also at fault for tolerating the name Autopilot in the first place. The name is intentionally misleading and is just a bad consumer policy as a whole tbh.
I remember user CatchMyDrift had a really good post on that exact subject
65mph crash and no one hurt!?!? wow car safety has come a long way!
Not even a scratch on the fire engine - has Tesla started making cars out of tracing paper while we weren’t paying attention?
Ever heard of a crumple zone?
The sad thing is: people will blame the autopilot system and Tesla is likely to get sued for it, without realising that even Musk says the technology isn’t as advanced as people perceive it as.
There should be training courses specifically set up to teach newfound Tesla owners how to operate their cars properly.
This is probably the most sensible thing I’ve seen in the comments. People put far too much faith in the tech ‘because Tesla’ but they don’t fully understand how it works. Having some degree of schooling will only do good.
Driver will be at fault no matter if the autopilot got ‘confused’.
The good news is the firefighters were immediately on scene
I very much love this comment XD
Bet this caused a spark online