tesla crash

Back in June, we reported on a peculiar accident in Irvine, California, where a Tesla Model X suddenly accelerated in a parking and ended up crashing into a building. Fortunately, no one was injured during the event. What was particularly interesting about the accident is that the driver claimed the vehicle accelerated on its own. Tesla reviewed the logs and claimed that the accelerator pedal was pressed.

Now we learn of another extremely similar accident that happened in Florida last month, but with a Tesla Model S instead of a Model X and it was caught on camera this time.
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In the past few weeks, three accidents involving Tesla vehicles on Autopilot made the headlines. Tesla was quick to place the blame with the drivers for two of the accidents, one in Pennsylvania and one in Montana, both involving brand new Model X SUVs.

In both cases, the automaker says that the vehicle logs show that drivers ignored several alerts to take control of the vehicles before the accidents. In both cases, the drivers were also cited by the police for careless driving – giving some weight to Tesla’s claims, but now the driver of the Model X in the Montana crash is coming back with a public letter to Tesla and Elon Musk claiming a “cover-up” of the problems with the Autopilot.
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After the Consumer Watchdog calling for the Tesla to disable the Autopilot following the recent fatal Model S crash while the system was activated, now the respected Consumer Reports magazine is weighing in and also asking Tesla to walk back some of the Autopilot features.

Tesla already responded to the publication saying that they are taking decisions based on “real-world data, not speculation by media”.
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Sterling Anderson, Tesla’s Director of Autopilot Programs, made a rare comment on the recent and evolving situation around his project at the automaker. He said that it’s been “a dark couple of months” for his team after the death of Joshua Brown, the Model S owner involved in an accident in Florida while driving on Autopilot, and the subsequent media coverage of the tragic event.
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Ever since the very publicized fatal Florida accident in a Model S while the Autopilot was activated, Tesla’s semi-autonomous driver assist system has been getting its reputation tarnished in the media. Autopilot took blame for a few subsequent incidents, despite nothing currently pointing to the system being the cause of any of the accidents – though NHTSA is now probing the Autopilot over two of them.

Now we learn of yet another crash where the Autopilot was reportedly at play. A Tesla Model X crashed in Montana Saturday night resulting in the SUV driving through a guardrail and going off the road. The driver blames the Autopilot but Tesla has yet to chime in…
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Last week, we reported on pictures of the aftermath of what must have been a spectacular accident involving a Tesla Model S and a truck on the A2 highway in the Netherlands between Eindhoven and Den Bosch. The Model S was hit by a truck and was seen rolling over at least one time before resting in the middle of the roadway.

Little was known at the time about the driver or any other occupants, other than that the driver was taken to the hospital. We now learn that the Tesla driver was traveling with his 8-year-old son and they both survived the crash with only minor bruises and cuts. The Model S owner took to the forums to explain the moments leading to the accident and to praise the vehicle’s safety features.
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Update: NHTSA now probing Tesla Model X rollover accident in PA for possible Autopilot involvement, Tesla updates its statement

Yesterday we reported on an accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike where a Tesla Model X hit a guard rail, the concrete median and then rollover. The two occupants came out alive and after the fact, the police said that the driver claimed that the Autopilot was activated when the vehicle crashed.

Tesla has now reviewed the logs and says that there’s “no data to suggest that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the incident.”
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As we previously reported, the fatal Tesla Autopilot accident happened last month in Florida, but it has been fascinating the media since last night after NHTSA launched an evaluation of Tesla’s Autopilot system over the accident. Now ABC sent a team to investigate in Florida and uncovered images of the aftermath of the accident.
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We learned today that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is launching a preliminary evaluation around a tragic fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S on Autopilot and a tractor-trailer last month.

We now learn that the victim was Joshua Brown, an active Tesla community member, who just a month prior to his accident, credited Tesla’s Autopilot for saving him in near miss caught on video.
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A fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S on Autopilot and a tractor-trailer, which is just now coming to light but happened last month, prompts a preliminary evaluation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The evaluation will determine whether the system worked according to expectations and it is the first step before an investigation which could theoretically lead to a recall.

Tesla issued a statement regarding the accident, which you can read in full below:

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Earlier this morning, we reported on a strange Model X accident that ended with the SUV crashing into a building in Irvine, California. Fortunately, no one was severely injured in the accident, but the Model X owner claims that the vehicle accelerated on its own while entering a parking space and the driver was unable to decelerate before it ‘autonomously’ crashed into the building.

We contacted Tesla and the company reviewed the logs around the time of the accident.  A representative is now assuring us that the Autopilot was not at fault and that the vehicle operated in a way consistent with the driver’s actions.
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We’ve seen our fair share of Tesla Model S crashes lately, some more impressive than others, but this one from Florida is particularly strange: a parking lot accident with enough momentum to launch the Model S in the air and land on top of a Toyota Camry.
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There are several different approaches to developing self-driving cars. Some companies are gradually releasing more and more advanced autonomous and semi-autonomous features leading to a fully autonomous system, like Tesla’s Autopilot, and others, like Google, are aiming to only release a system once the technology is ready for a fully (level 4) self-driving car.

Following a few recent accidents in the past weeks, Tesla received some criticisms over its approach on releasing semi-autonomous features. One of the most severe criticism came from renowned scientist Andrew NG who said that it was plainly “irresponsible” for Tesla to ship the Autopilot.
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A Tesla Model S driver in Utah, Jared Overton, says that he parked his car behind a trailer before running an errand for a few minutes. When he returned to his vehicle, he says he found it crashed in the back of the trailer with the windshield crushed by the trailer’s bed – picture above.

The owner claims the car decided to move forward on its own, but after verifying the logs, Tesla claims that the ‘Summon’ feature, which allows the vehicle to drive itself on short distances without anyone in the car, was activated seconds after the car was parked.
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Earlier this week, a 18-year old took her father’s Tesla Model S for a ride with 4 of her friends in Pullach, Germany. She was reportedly driving at an excessive speed and lost control in a turn. The vehicle jumped off-road “and flew 25 meters [82 ft] through the air” then subsequently crashed in a field at full speed before rolling over at least once.

It takes a lot of speed to flip a 5,000 lbs Model S with a low center of gravity, but fortunately and despite the severity of the crash, none of the 5 occupants in the Model S died.
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