By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – The National Security Administration Highway Traffic United States said Thursday it will open a preliminary to 25,000 vehicles Model S Tesla Motors investigation after a driver died while using the autopilot auto mode.
The agency said the accident occurred in a S 2015 model operated with automatic driving system activated, and called for “the design and performance of any assistance to conduct activated at the time of the crash is examined”.
The research is the first step before the National Security Administration Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA, for its acronym in English) to order the withdrawal of the vehicles if it determines that these are unsafe.
The NHTSA said preliminary reports indicate that the crash occurred when a semi-trailer truck turned left in front of the vehicle Tesla at an intersection, while the driver operated autopilot mode.
Tesla said in a posting on his blog that he is the first death that has known little more than 209 million kilometers in which activated the autopilot.
Tesla remarked that “neither the autopilot or the driver noticed the white side of the semitrailer against a starlit sky, so that the brake was not applied”.
The company added that “the height of trailer combination with its position on the road and the extremely unusual circumstances of the impact caused the Model S passed under the trailer, so the bottom of it hit the windshield” car .
Tesla said “the autopilot is constantly improving but is still not perfect and requires the driver to stay alert.”
© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment