Photo: Tesla Motors
It looks like the big qustion of the past month or so was "did it have the Autopilot switch on or not?" Tesla has had to answer this enquiry on God only knows how many occasions lately, and it's a damn good thing it keeps logs of all of its vehicles for situations precisely like this one.
The crash happened two weeks ago, on July 1, the same day the fatal Model S crash in Florida was made public. The NHTSA launched investigations in both cases, but it will probably have to drop this one since the logs show that Autopilot was not operating at the moment of the crash.
Police described the accident that didn't involve any other car as a series of collisions, first with the protective guard, and then with the concrete median which caused the Model X SUV to roll over, ending wheels-up in the middle lane. The car was driven by art gallery owner Albert Scaglione who also had his son in law with him, an artist called Tim Yanke.
When questioned by the police after the accident, Mr. Scaglione claimed that the Autopilot was in use at the time of the crash, something Tesla's logs have now proven to be false. After the circumstances of the incident have been made clear, Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce it to the world: "Onboard vehicle logs show Autopilot was turned off in Pennsylvania crash. Moreover, crash would not have occurred if it was on," Tesla's CEO posted, taking advantage of another occasion to cast some favorable light on his vehicles' driving aid features.
How can Elon Musk know for certain that the Autopilot would have avoided this crash? Well, most people will say that he can't, but the truth is that the Autopilot runs in the background at all times, so the logs could show a simulation of how the system would have managed the situation, so those might not be just empty words.
In the light of the new findings, Mr. Scaglione is now facing charges of reckless driving. As for his reputation, you could argue that he tried to place the blame on the Autopilot, but at the same time you can't really judge a man for what he said right after a serious crash. As the logs description below shows, he was indeed using all the Autopilot features before the incident took place, so he might have gotten confused.
“We got access to the logs. Data from the vehicle shows that Autosteer was not engaged at the time of this collision. Prior to the collision, Autosteer was in use periodically throughout the approximately 50-minute trip. The most recent such use ended when, approximately 40 seconds prior to the collision, the vehicle did not detect the driver’s hands on the wheel and began a rapidly escalating set of visual and audible alerts to ensure the driver took proper control. When the driver failed to respond to 15 seconds of visual warnings and audible tones, Autosteer began a graceful abort procedure in which the music is muted, the vehicle begins to slow and the driver is instructed both visually and audibly to place their hands on the wheel. Approximately 11 seconds prior to the collision, the driver responded and regained control by holding the steering wheel, applying leftward torque to turn it, and pressing the accelerator pedal to 42%. Over 10 seconds and approximately 300m later and while under manual steering control, the driver drifted out of the lane, collided with a barrier, overcorrected, crossed both lanes of the highway, struck a median barrier, and rolled the vehicle.”
Police described the accident that didn't involve any other car as a series of collisions, first with the protective guard, and then with the concrete median which caused the Model X SUV to roll over, ending wheels-up in the middle lane. The car was driven by art gallery owner Albert Scaglione who also had his son in law with him, an artist called Tim Yanke.
When questioned by the police after the accident, Mr. Scaglione claimed that the Autopilot was in use at the time of the crash, something Tesla's logs have now proven to be false. After the circumstances of the incident have been made clear, Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce it to the world: "Onboard vehicle logs show Autopilot was turned off in Pennsylvania crash. Moreover, crash would not have occurred if it was on," Tesla's CEO posted, taking advantage of another occasion to cast some favorable light on his vehicles' driving aid features.
How can Elon Musk know for certain that the Autopilot would have avoided this crash? Well, most people will say that he can't, but the truth is that the Autopilot runs in the background at all times, so the logs could show a simulation of how the system would have managed the situation, so those might not be just empty words.
In the light of the new findings, Mr. Scaglione is now facing charges of reckless driving. As for his reputation, you could argue that he tried to place the blame on the Autopilot, but at the same time you can't really judge a man for what he said right after a serious crash. As the logs description below shows, he was indeed using all the Autopilot features before the incident took place, so he might have gotten confused.
“We got access to the logs. Data from the vehicle shows that Autosteer was not engaged at the time of this collision. Prior to the collision, Autosteer was in use periodically throughout the approximately 50-minute trip. The most recent such use ended when, approximately 40 seconds prior to the collision, the vehicle did not detect the driver’s hands on the wheel and began a rapidly escalating set of visual and audible alerts to ensure the driver took proper control. When the driver failed to respond to 15 seconds of visual warnings and audible tones, Autosteer began a graceful abort procedure in which the music is muted, the vehicle begins to slow and the driver is instructed both visually and audibly to place their hands on the wheel. Approximately 11 seconds prior to the collision, the driver responded and regained control by holding the steering wheel, applying leftward torque to turn it, and pressing the accelerator pedal to 42%. Over 10 seconds and approximately 300m later and while under manual steering control, the driver drifted out of the lane, collided with a barrier, overcorrected, crossed both lanes of the highway, struck a median barrier, and rolled the vehicle.”
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