American man, Joshua Brown, was killed on Wednesday when his Tesla Model S failed to detect an oncoming trailer whilst the car was in autopilot mode.
As we reported yesterday, an investigation into 25,000 Tesla Model S cars fitted with this technology is underway to determine what could have caused the fatal error.
Frank Baressi, The 62-year-old driver of the trailer that Brown collided with, has told the Associated Press that Brown was; “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen” and that it was “still playing when he died”. Baressi admitted that he did not see the movie playing when he approached the car but could hear it playing.
The Florida Highway Patrol recovered a portable DVD player from the wrecked electric vehicle. Tesla has confirmed that the video display in the Model S is fitted with VIM (Video in Motion) technology that prevents the driver from watching movies through the cars entertainment system whilst the car is in motion.
Original Article: 1st July 2016
An investigation into 25,000 Tesla Model S cars fitted with autopilot technology is underway after one was involved in a fatal accident whilst the on board computer was driving the car.
The investigation comes after it was revealed that the driver of the Model S, Joshua brown, was in fact using the self-driving technology when the car failed to detect a tractor trailer making a left turn across a divided highway.
Tesla released an official statement on Wednesday; ““Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied,”.
Tesla has acknowledged that the fatal error may have occurred when the car failed to recognize the impending danger that a self-driven car would have otherwise detected; “The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer.”
The investigation and impending outcome are set to form a landmark precedent on the issue of self-driving cars and play an important role in the future development of autonomous vehicles.
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