Photo: Newport Beach Fire Department
On December 11, at around 7:25 AM, a white Tesla Model S hit the back of an OCBus on East Coast Highway and Cameo Shores in Newport Beach. Firefighters went to the crash location and transported an injured person – possibly the Tesla driver – to the hospital in under four minutes. The main question about the wreck at this point is: was Autopilot involved?
The OCBus is painted in sky blue, which could make a camera-based system fail to detect it. According to the Twitter account passthebeano, there were no skid marks on the ground indicating that the driver tried to brake the EV, only “fluid leak at the point of contact.” There’s a picture showing precisely that.
This Twitter account is notoriously critical of Tesla. Anyway, the Newport Beach Fire Department confirmed the crash in a Facebook post. It also made an appeal for people “when driving in the early morning or late afternoon.” The firefighters asked drivers to “take into account the sun glare, slow down and leave more space.” In other words, it seems the Newport Beach Fire Department thinks sun glare may have something to do with the crash.
That could be the case with any other vehicle and a distracted driver. With a Tesla involved, there’s always the possibility that Autopilot could be controlling the car. The first fatal crash with this beta software happened in similar circumstances in 2016 when Joshua Brown’s Tesla Model S could not detect a tractor-trailer crossing the road right in front of it.
Tesla Autopilot also failed to detect emergency vehicles on the road, hitting at least 12 of them until August 2021. NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) opened an investigation about the software to understand why it failed so many times under comparable situations. Tesla now claims to have solved the problem with an OTA (over-the-air) update, but the safety agency is yet to determine if that was enough.
NHTSA issued a Standing General Order on June 29 demanding automakers to report crashes involving “vehicles equipped with SAE Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) or SAE Levels 3-5 automated driving systems (ADS).” Considering the safety agency did not mention if these systems had to be active or not, Tesla should have already informed NHTSA about this new crash. We'll try to confirm if that has already happened.
NHTSA gave automakers only one day to do so if the crash involves “a hospital-treated injury, a fatality, a vehicle tow-away, an airbag deployment, or a vulnerable road user such as a pedestrian or bicyclist.” The pictures and the information about this wreck show that is the case here. The doubt still remaining is if Autopilot was engaged or not.
In California, the LA Times reported that the chair of the California Senate’s Transportation Committee, Lena Gonzalez, asked the State’s DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) why Tesla is not obliged to report crashes involving its beta software testing. Pressure is building up for the EV maker to adopt a more responsible approach in its autonomous vehicle development. If this crash in Newport Beach is confirmed to have Autopilot involvement, it may increase even more.
This Twitter account is notoriously critical of Tesla. Anyway, the Newport Beach Fire Department confirmed the crash in a Facebook post. It also made an appeal for people “when driving in the early morning or late afternoon.” The firefighters asked drivers to “take into account the sun glare, slow down and leave more space.” In other words, it seems the Newport Beach Fire Department thinks sun glare may have something to do with the crash.
That could be the case with any other vehicle and a distracted driver. With a Tesla involved, there’s always the possibility that Autopilot could be controlling the car. The first fatal crash with this beta software happened in similar circumstances in 2016 when Joshua Brown’s Tesla Model S could not detect a tractor-trailer crossing the road right in front of it.
Tesla Autopilot also failed to detect emergency vehicles on the road, hitting at least 12 of them until August 2021. NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) opened an investigation about the software to understand why it failed so many times under comparable situations. Tesla now claims to have solved the problem with an OTA (over-the-air) update, but the safety agency is yet to determine if that was enough.
NHTSA issued a Standing General Order on June 29 demanding automakers to report crashes involving “vehicles equipped with SAE Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) or SAE Levels 3-5 automated driving systems (ADS).” Considering the safety agency did not mention if these systems had to be active or not, Tesla should have already informed NHTSA about this new crash. We'll try to confirm if that has already happened.
NHTSA gave automakers only one day to do so if the crash involves “a hospital-treated injury, a fatality, a vehicle tow-away, an airbag deployment, or a vulnerable road user such as a pedestrian or bicyclist.” The pictures and the information about this wreck show that is the case here. The doubt still remaining is if Autopilot was engaged or not.
In California, the LA Times reported that the chair of the California Senate’s Transportation Committee, Lena Gonzalez, asked the State’s DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) why Tesla is not obliged to report crashes involving its beta software testing. Pressure is building up for the EV maker to adopt a more responsible approach in its autonomous vehicle development. If this crash in Newport Beach is confirmed to have Autopilot involvement, it may increase even more.
Just walked the accident scene of yesterday's Tesla vs OCTD Bus crash. Zero evidence of skid marks. Some fluid leak at the point of contact (Telsa coolant?). See pics. $45 MPH posted (I thought it was higher).$TSLA $TSLAQ #SGF pic.twitter.com/Gdh7euEj7c
— passthebeano (@passthebeano) December 12, 2021
Google News