Tesla, which had a fatal accident in May, was driving with excess speed

On May 7, 2016, the Tesla Model S crashed into a trailer truck. The autopilot did not identify the trailer as an obstacle and flew under it

The first results of the investigation of the Tesla electric car accident in May, which killed its driver, 40-year-old American Joshua Brown, are published. As it turned out, the car with the Autopilot feature turned on was driving overspeed. At the time of the collision, the speed was exceeded at 15 km / h and left 119 km / h (74 mph), with the maximum allowed speed on this stretch of road at 104 km / h (65 mph).

Representatives of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the USA announced on July 1 that it was necessary to further study all the circumstances of this case. Regulatory officials want to determine the cause of the accident and make sure that the incidents with Tesla cars are not the result of mistakes made when developing a computer control system.

Earlier, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States said that the regulator does not plan to impose restrictions on the technology of "virtual assistants" motorist. As far as can be judged, measures will not be imposed on Tesla. Officially, the investigation is still ongoing, so the representative of the regulator in his speech did not touch on the aspects of the May accident.
')

US-27A route on which the collision occurred. According to the regulator, at the time of the accident there was clear weather, the road surface was dry

A few days ago, Tesla received a letter from the owner of the electric car Model S, in which the motorist told about the effective work of the autopilot (Tesla Autopilot) in an emergency. Thanks to the automatic emergency braking system (Automatic Emergency Braking), it was possible to avoid a pedestrian hit. If it were not for this system, there would be an accident in which a pedestrian could have perished. The system of automatic emergency braking is equipped with all models of electric vehicles Tesla Motors.



The truck that the Model S crashed into was only slightly damaged. The electric car crashed into the trailer on the right side, at an angle of about 90 degrees. Representatives of the regulator conducted a three-dimensional laser scan of the damaged trailer and electric vehicle. These data will be used in the course of further investigation. Also, the team conducting the investigation, will use the data stored in the computer system broken Tesla.



Now the collection of information continues. Unfortunately, the report does not indicate whether any errors or deficiencies were found in the Autopilot system. The date of the presentation of the final conclusions in this case is also still unknown. The investigation is likely to continue for at least a year.

The manual for the electric vehicle says that the Autopilot may not identify some objects. It is also said that the technology "was created for convenience while driving, but it is not a system of avoiding obstacles or preventing collisions."