A preliminary NTSB report involving the fatal Tesla crash in March has just be released. The report describes the accident:
A Tesla Model X operating in Autopilot mode was originally following a car in front of it. Seven seconds before the crash, the system began steering left and accelerated into a highway barrier. The driver’s hands were not on the wheel for the six seconds preceding the crash.
“What strikes me from the NTSB preliminary report is that the car was silent—no visual or auditory alert at all—as it drove straight into the concrete median barrier,” says Dr. Humphreys “Yet the car’s forward radar must surely have sensed the highly reflective crash attenuator mounted on the barrier.” The preliminary report does not address the cause of the accident. A final conclusion is due in the coming months.
Read the full article featuring Dr. Humphreys.
