Second Tesla Crash Under Review by U.S. Auto-Safety Regulators
July 06 2016 - 5:40PM
Dow Jones News
U.S. auto-safety regulators are scrutinizing the Pennsylvania
crash of a Tesla Motors Inc. Model X to determine whether the
sport-utility vehicle's Autopilot system was in use, days after
starting a formal probe of the Silicon Valley company's
technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is
"collecting information" from the electric-car maker, state police
and the driver of the Model X about the July 1 crash, the agency
said in a statement Wednesday. Regulators are attempting to
"determine whether automated functions were in use at the time of
the crash," the agency said.
Tesla said it doesn't currently believe Autopilot was being used
at the time of the crash. The Palo Alto, Calif., auto maker said it
hasn't been able to reach the driver and hasn't received data about
the state of the vehicle's controls before the collision, possibly
because of a damaged antenna.
State police officials didn't return messages seeking comment.
The Tesla SUV's driver didn't return a message left late
Tuesday.
The Detroit Free Press reported that the Tesla SUV hit a
guardrail and then crashed into a concrete median before rolling on
its roof on the Pennsylvania Turnpike more than 100 miles east of
Pittsburgh. The driver and passenger survived the crash, the
newspaper reported.
The regulatory inquiry stemming from the Pennsylvania crash
isn't a formal probe. Regulators opened a formal investigation into
Tesla's Autopilot system after the driver of a Model S using it
died in a collision with a truck in Florida May 7. Regulators
haven't determined whether any problems exist with the technology,
which allows Tesla electric vehicles to drive themselves under
certain circumstances. Tesla has said the fatal crash in Florida
was the first in more than 130 million miles driven with Autopilot
in use.
The auto maker hasn't been able to collect much information yet
on the separate Pennsylvania crash, it said.
"We received an automated alert from this vehicle on July 1
indicating air bag deployment, but logs containing detailed
information on the state of the vehicle controls at the time of the
collision were never received," Tesla said in a statement.
"This is consistent with damage of the severity reported in the
press, which can cause the antenna to fail. As we do with all crash
events, we immediately reached out to the customer to confirm they
were OK and offer support but were unable to reach him," Tesla
added. "We have since attempted to contact the customer three times
by phone without success. Based on the information we have now, we
have no reason to believe that Autopilot had anything to do with
this accident."
Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com and Mike Ramsey at
michael.ramsey@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 06, 2016 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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