Monday, April 19, 2021
E-car crashes against a tree
Two dead in an accident with a driverless Tesla
In the US state of Texas, a Tesla collides with a tree and goes up in flames. The two occupants of the vehicle are killed. According to initial police investigations, neither of the two victims was behind the wheel during the accident.
In the United States, two people were killed in an accident in an apparently autonomous Tesla car. As reported by several US media, the car hit a tree north of Houston at high speed. “Our preliminary investigation suggests – but it is ongoing – that no one was behind the wheel of this vehicle,” Harris County policeman Mark Herman told the Wall Street Journal.
When the police arrived, the report said one of the victims was sitting in the passenger seat and the other was in the back seat. Herman said police have not yet been able to determine if the driver’s side airbag has deployed. The “Wall Street Journal” reports that it is still being investigated whether the driver assistance system of the car was switched on.
According to a local TV station, the accident car is said to have been a Tesla Model S, which went up in flames in the accident. Accordingly, the two victims are men aged 59 and 69 years.
Tesla calls its driver assistance system autopilot. However, the company points out that the person in the driver’s seat must still have their hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take the wheel at all times. Although the functions would become more and more powerful over time, they currently do not make the vehicle autonomous. In the online networks, however, videos can be seen time and again in which drivers have not had their hands on the steering wheel for a long time or have even fallen asleep.
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