Fatal Tesla accident: who is to blame and what to do next?

On July 1, the news was published on Geektimes that the Tesla Model S car with the autopilot system turned on was fatal. So far this is the first and only case of the death of the driver of a car that is under the control of a computer system.

Formally, the manufacturer of the electric vehicle is not to blame. The autopilot feature is disabled in Tesla electric vehicles by default. The company previously stated the following: “Safety is a top priority for Tesla, we design and build cars primarily based on this. We also ask our customers to train safely while using our cars ... The Tesla autopilot is the most advanced of the existing systems, but it does not turn the car into an unmanned vehicle and does not take responsibility from the driver. ” All true, but there are a couple of controversial points.

Late term of informing the regulator about the accident

The accident happened on May 7, and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration learned of this on May 16, after 9 days. The public was told about the car accident and that later - on June 30, almost 2 months after the incident itself. Why regulators or the company itself did not report this before?
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Tesla Motors gave a detailed answer to this question: “Tesla, like any other automaker, does not find it necessary to share information about all accidents involving Tesla electric vehicles. Every year more than a million people die in accidents, but automakers do not share information about each incident with investors ... ”.


Electric Tesla Model S after the accident on May 7

Sale of Tesla Motors shares

On May 18, another interesting event occurred: Tesla and Ilon Musk sold the company 's shares for $ 2 billion, at $ 215 per share. At this time, the management of the company already knew about the catastrophe, a corresponding investigation was carried out. If it had become known before the sale of the shares, the proceeds would be less. The question arises - whether the sale of shares and the delay with the message about the disaster is fatal?

Immediately after it became aware of what had happened, the company's stock price fell from $ 212 to $ 206. True, the losses were quickly won back by the market: in the evening the value of the shares increased to $ 216. Ilon Musk, head of Tesla Motors, responded to allegations of delaying informing regulators and the public about the accident on his Twitter account. He said that all this is "not essential" for the company's investors.

There are some more questions for which there are no answers yet.

Did the dead driver watch the movie? Several people said they heard the sounds of the Harry Potter film from an electric car. If the driver watched the movie, then the responsibility for what happened is on him. If the driver did not watch the film (one of the participants in the accident investigation speaks about this) and followed the road, and the autopilot let him down, then Tesla is also responsible. No matter what the company said about autopilot beta testing and driver responsibility for its use, Google doesn’t plan to use its vehicle control system until it is fully ready. The same say, and representatives of Volvo. It turns out that Tesla brought a raw product to the market to attract customers?

How does Tesla plan to avoid accidents in the future? According to some experts, “high ground clearance, coupled with the position of the semi-trailer on the road and extremely rare circumstances, led to the Model S passing under the trailer, and the lower part of the trailer collided with the Model S windshield.”

If there was something else on the place of the trailer, with a smaller gap, then the autopilot would probably react.

Soon the company will bring to the market an updated version of the autopilot, which they promise to make even safer than the previous version.



About some features of the new version of the autopilot is already known: added cameras and updated software. “The dual camera system is able to recognize and react to stop signs and traffic lights without driver participation,” says a source familiar with the functionality of the updated version. Now the system responds only to physical obstacles in front of the car. If the updated version is able to respond to signs and traffic lights, then it is much closer to autonomous driving.

Updated system components such as Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer. The Tesla driver with the new autopilot will get an updated interface. In particular, objects surrounding the car will be shown in the first person, just as the sensors of the electric vehicle “see” them. Now the picture is shown in the third person. Perhaps it interferes with the perception of obstacles by the driver.



Improved speech recognition, added new voice commands. You will no longer need to press and hold the button in order to give a voice command: the system will constantly listen to the driver. After recognition, the command will be displayed on the screen. It is planned to improve and interact with large objects on the road - trucks and trailers.

Now the new autopilot is in beta testing, and it may take several weeks or several months before the release.



By the way, those of Tesla electric car owners who made an order before September 14, 2014 will not receive the update . Most likely, Tesla Model 3 will be delivered with an updated version of the software.

What does Musk think?

Earlier, the head of Tesla Motors wrote to a Fortune journalist : "... around the world, about a million people die in car accidents every year. About half of this million could have been saved if Tesla's autopilot were accessible to everyone." Earlier, Musk has already stated that, in his opinion, the autopilot reduces the likelihood of a car in an accident by about 50%.

UPD. Today it became known about another accident electric Tesla. This time the trouble happened with the owner of the Tesla Model X, who activated the autopilot mode before the accident. Fortunately, no one died, there are no serious injuries either.

The accident happened on July 1 in Pennsylvania, USA. Model X with the included autopilot entered the safety fence, crossed several lanes of the road and crashed into a concrete divider.

The electric car turned over to the roof and stopped. Another car crashed in the accident, the 2013 Infiniti G37 crashing into the detached parts of the Model X. According to those familiar with the section of the road where the accident occurred, driving here is very simple. And the layout and all fences are installed where needed. The driver's error here is practically excluded. Why the Tesla autopilot lost its way is unclear; it remains to be studied.