Recently, there have been an uproar about a fatal crash involving two men (59 years old and 69 years old) and a Tesla vehicle. Tesla’s stocks took a dip and there was a lot of speculation about the ability of Tesla’s self-driving systems. It is commonly known that all of the safety systems in cars can be easily exploited, but that isn’t a design flaw – that is humans exploiting their own safety. The situation got pretty heated quickly and was covered by media immediately blaming Tesla. It was even covered here, a post by a fellow student Maciek Głazek, where he explains more about the crash itself.
According to a discussion that happened on an Monday’s earning call Q1 2021 the company’s CEO Elon Musk stated that from the logs that they have gathered so far has shown that the vehicle was not in autopilot and that there was no Full Self-Driving option purchased in the crashed Tesla model. On top of that, Tesla’s VP Lars Moravy stated that the all of the seatbelts (after the crash) were unbuckled and that the steering wheel was deformed, indicating that someone was in the driver’s seat.
This is surprising, because the local authorities were quick to announce that they are 100% certain there was no one in the drivers seat. Tesla continues to argue that media is covering them unfairly, as the company is newsworthy and brings a lot of clicks.
Unfortunately the SD card from the car couldn’t be retrieved and the situation may be subject to change. Be on the lookout as authorities and the company announce their stand.
resources:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/26/22404677/tesla-texas-crash-driver-seat-earnings-musk
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/26/tesla-texas-crash/