The first registration of a car accident on autopilot mode

A few days ago the first fatal accident of a car with the autopilot mode was made keep on record.

The investigation is ongoing but according to the reports of the National Transportation Security Administration of the United States (NHTSA) and the Tesla company, the automaker, one person died the last May 7 in Williston, a small town in the state of Florida (United States of America) aboard a Model S Tesla.

The accident occurred apparently at an intersection, when a tractor - trailer crossed a perpendicular road. As noted by the Tesla company, the white trailer attached to the great light that was at that time in the sky, prevented that both the autopilot system as the driver brakes activate itself, so the impact was inevitable.

Elon Musk, who has studied similar accidents, recognizes that in addition, the bad luck caused the crash occurred directly with the trailer, which was made due to the high impact on the windshield. If the crash had been on the front or rear of the vehicle, the car security system itself had reacted on time and the results would have been quite different.

Now the National Transportation Security Administration of the United States (NHTSA) investigates the reasons that led to the autopilot to fail, in order to determine whether the system worked properly before the accident or, otherwise, if there was a previous ruling, which it could make the Tesla company be imputed for responsibility for the collision.

The company has also commented that this system is still under public supervision and strongly recommends that the drivers do not take the hands off the wheel at any time and stay tuned to the road. However, the Tesla company claims that this system has already been used for 210 million kilometers without any accident, a fact which contrasts with the claims recorded on 100 million kilometers worldwide if the driver is human.

The victim went by the name of Joshua Brown, a man of 45 years living in Ohio (United States of America). Now it has been known that this man belonged to a community that warned of the automatic failures of the Tesla company, and even had shared videos in which we see that this system still has flaws polishing. Resulting from this information is that the victim was aware that the system could fail, but could not do anything to save his life already.

Now it remains to know what exactly happened and what the justice decides how to proceed. Most of the regulations, of course, do not include the cases with autonomous cars, drivers or autonomous systems in public beta.

Beyond the Tesla company, this investigation by the United States of America regulator is bad for the autonomous vehicles types, considered as the future of the automobiles in the medium term and that just is extolled as an advantage for the possibility of reducing the traffic accidents.

Christopher Miller
"Looking for an amazing life!"