Tesla Seeks Information on Model S Fatal Crash in China
September 14 2016 - 5:00PM
Dow Jones News
Tesla Motors Inc. said Wednesday that a fatal crash in January
involving one of its vehicles in China was so extensive that it
hasn't been able to determine whether the car's Autopilot system
was engaged.
China Central Television, the state broadcaster known as CCTV,
on Wednesday reported that 23-year-old Gao Yaning died in a crash
in the northeastern province of Hebei while driving a Tesla Model S
on Jan. 20.
His father, Gao Jubin, filed a lawsuit in July against a Chinese
dealer who sold the Tesla, CCTV reported, alleging that his son
used the Autopilot feature at the time of the crash. The suit cites
video footage, taken from inside the car, showing that the car
maintained its speed when it hit a road sweeper.
"We were saddened to learn of the death of our customer's son,"
the Palo Alto, Calif., auto maker said Wednesday in a statement.
"We have tried repeatedly to work with our customer to investigate
the cause of the crash, but he has not provided us with any
additional information that would allow us to do so."
Tesla's Autopilot system uses cameras, radar and sensors to
steer its vehicles and adjust their speed. The company says drivers
must remain ready to take control of the car.
Telsa has faced scrutiny for the software since late June when
Tesla disclosed that a Model S had crashed in Florida, killing the
driver.
Tesla said then that the May 7 incident was "the first known
fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was
activated."
The Florida crash sparked an investigation of Tesla's Autopilot
system by U.S. car-safety regulators that remains ongoing.
The CCTV report on Wednesday raises the question whether the
China crash was the first fatal accident involving Autopilot. A
lawyer who represents the father of the son involved in the crash
said his client isn't after a financial remedy.
"We want to…let the public know that the 'automatic driving'
technology has some flaws and people shouldn't try it lightly,"
said Wang Beibei, the lawyer, on CCTV.
"We take any incident with our vehicles very seriously and
immediately reached out to our customer when we learned of the
crash," Tesla said in Wednesday's statement. "Because of the damage
caused by the collision, the car was physically incapable of
transmitting log data to our servers and we therefore have no way
of knowing whether or not Autopilot was engaged at the time of the
crash."
On Sunday, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk announced plans to
update the Autopilot software in Tesla vehicles within the next two
weeks with changes that he said would have likely prevented the
Florida crash. Autopilot will depend more on radar signals as part
of the changes.
Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 14, 2016 16:45 ET (20:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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