In 2021 a Tesla car crash hit a tree, killing two people, there is no tech at fault. According to the recent findings by NTSB, the crash was caused by high speed and intoxication. The crash occurred in Texas in April 2021, when Tesla Model S was hit by a tree and burst into flames.
At the time of the incident, numerous reports blamed Tesla and its Autopilot driver-assist system, and it was assumed based on early reports that no one was in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash. According to Teslarati, Constable Mark Herman from Harris Country Precinct 4 shared the following information with reporters not long after the incident, “They are 100% certain that no one was in the driver seat driving that vehicle at the time of impact. They are positive… Several of our folks are reconstructionists, but they feel very confident just with the positioning of the bodies after the impact that no one was driving that vehicle.” The crash became very highly publicized, and the story changed often. In short, two men hopped into a Tesla Model S at the owner’s home, headed just a quick way down the street, missed a curve, and collided with a tree.
Scene of the crash
The car went up in flames and they didn’t get out in time. First responders at the scene didn’t find anyone in the driver’s seat, but that wasn’t proof enough that no one had been driving in the first place, though the media ran with it and went after Tesla for its unsafe, driverless cars. At the scene of the crash, one man was found in the passenger seat, and the other in the rear seat. A family member of one of the men told the authorities that he watched as the man moved into the back seats as the Model S started moving.
As expected, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) opened investigations into the incident. With the cooperation of Tesla, it was quickly determined that the EV maker’s Autopilot system wasn’t engaged at the time of the crash. The NTSB explained that based on the data, there was “no use of the Autopilot system at any time during this ownership period of the vehicle, including the time frame up to the last transmitted timestamp on April 17, 2021.” Autopilot can’t be engaged on a road without lane markings, so it wouldn’t have allowed the men to turn it on anyhow.
