Tesla officials are saying that the Autopilot program played no role in the most recent Model S crash.
Tesla Motors officials said the driver of a Model S who died this week in the Netherlands was not using the vehicle’s Autopilot function at the time of the crash. The company said it is cooperating with authorities in the investigation.
Police and firefighters arrived at the scene to find the car damaged, but it is unclear if the 53-year-old driver was using the vehicle’s semiautonomous vehicle mode when he crashed in the Dutch town of Baarn, approximately 25 miles southeast of Amsterdam.
“Thus far, we can confirm from the car’s logs that Autopilot was not engaged at any time during the drive cycle and that, consistent with the damage that was observed after the vehicle struck the tree, the vehicle was being driven at more than 155 kilometers an hour,” a Tesla spokesman said in a statement.
In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating a May 7 fatality in Florida in which a driver using Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system crashed into a truck in Ohio.
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Following the fatal crash, Tesla said it was preparing a software update that would enhance the Autopilot system. The company announced Aug. 31 that was releasing the upgraded program through its normal “over-the-air” process.
Tesla hasn’t said whether the software in the Model S involved in crash had been updated.
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However, Tesla has also been criticized for using its end users for what are known as in the tech world as “beta tests” of its new software.
Tesla’s electric cars had logged 130 million miles without a fatal accident while Autopilot was engaged before a model Model S rammed a tractor-trailer that the system failed to detect in time. Tesla said that the car’s Autopilot system failed to identify properly the white trailer against the glare of a sunny sky as turned left across the lane in which the Model S was traveling.
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Police officers who investigated the fatal accident said the truck driver had followed the rules of the road and acted properly.