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Fatal Tesla Model S Accident Blamed On Auto-Braking System, Not Autopilot

Tesla Motors was asked to explain the fatal accident that occurred this May in front of a select committee of the U.S. Senate.
Joshua Brown's Tesla Model S driving on Autopilot 4 photos
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Joshua Brown's Tesla Model S driving on AutopilotJoshua Brown's Tesla Model S driving on AutopilotJoshua Brown's Tesla Model S driving on Autopilot
According to an unnamed source in the Senate, Tesla representatives explained that the problem that led to the fatal Model S accident in Florida was not related to the Autopilot system.

Instead, it was reportedly caused by a faulty operation of the front crash prevention system, a feature that was supposed to apply the brakes in case of detecting an imminent frontal impact and the driver had no reaction to the warning.

As The New York Times notes, it is unclear how and why Tesla has separated the Autopilot technology from its automated steering and lane keeping assistance. Tesla officials declined to comment the matter when the New York Times contacted them.

The issue at hand at the moment is why the automated emergency braking system was not activated. As previously explained, there is a possibility that the onboard camera did not observe the hazard, in the form of a white trailer, on a brightly lit day.

Critics of Tesla Motors criticized the automaker for not using LIDAR technology to aid its self-driving system in identifying risks on the road. In the case of LIDAR tech, illuminating conditions would not have impacted perception in any way.

According to the source quoted by NY Times, Tesla representatives explained that the company had split each of the semi-autonomous safety features from its Autopilot mode. Therefore, the latter has the job of managing to steer, change lanes, and adjust speed, while the rest of the systems do their jobs in a complementary manner, without interfering with Autopilot.

The decision to split this technology from other functions had allowed Tesla to introduce it simply after the launch of the Model S, while also providing the described active safety features available when the car first came to market.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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