HOUSTON — Two people were killed in Texas in the fiery crash of a Tesla and authorities say there was no one in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash, although it’s not clear whether the car’s driver-assist system was being used.
A Harris County constable told television stations in Houston that there was a person in the front passenger seat and another in a rear passenger seat after the wreck Saturday night in the Houston suburb of Spring. Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said authorities are certain that no one was driving the car at the time of the crash.
“They feel very confident just with the positioning of the bodies after the impact that there was no one driving that vehicle,” Herman told KHOU-TV.Deputies said the car was traveling fast and failed to navigate a turn before running off the road, hitting a tree, and bursting into flames. The identity of the victims had not been released by Sunday afternoon. KHOU reported that one was 69 and the other was 59.
The company warns customers that its driver-assist system, called Autopilot, is not an autonomous-driving program, and that they must pay attention and be ready to take control of the vehicle. However, the National Transportation Safety Board said last year that the design of the systemKPRC-TV reported that a brother-in-law of one of the victims said it took four hours to extinguish the blaze.
For perspective: 171,000 gasoline powered American cars catch on fire and or explode every year. 460 a day. Statistics show that a Tesla is much safer, five star ratings all around, then all other models. Got to wonder, what is the payoff for hating Tesla? Well? Crickets
It will always amaze me that Elon Musk has an army of online bootlickers always ready to defend him and his products. So weird.
Points for best headline...thanks for keeping it real AP!
Why would the Autopilot not stop the car if no one was detected in the driver seat? A technological marvel like Tesla surely would have that kind of system? Any other car these days beeps at a driver not wearing a seat belt.
Oh NO, WTF does it mean? I start to be with the detective ( Will Smith) in I Robot, having no gut to trust any robots.
Someone is always supposed to be in the driver seat if they do auto pilot. I don't get why the guys didn't follow that. Maybe it wasn't on auto pilot and why weren't they wearing seatbelts?
lmnysf I don’t want to be in a car 🚘 on Autopilot
Maximum Overdrive
O money, money, money, my money!
Pretty sure you still have to sit in drivers seat. This isn’t Tesla’s fault but stupid humans.
tesla stock bombs tomorrow 🤞
shmmn
These are the same people you see on video that are at the gas station trying to find out where you put the gas ina Tesla
Rise, robots, rise! Time to destroy the fleshlings!
it was only a matter of time.. 🍆🐱🛏=🚗
'The company warns customers that its driver-assist system, called Autopilot, is not an autonomous-driving program' Then *maybe* they shouldn't have named the system AUTOPILOT.
In crashes, those batteries cause fires that are nearly impossible to extinguish. No thanks Tesla
Ok no one was in the drivers seat so clearly they WERE using the driver’s assist. How else would it have been moving? A cement block on the gas pedal 🤦🏻♀️
well that's what happens when the driver abandons the driver seat.
Things are getting out of hand. Now it’s possible to get killed by nobody. Technology is going to come back to kill us like on Battlestar Galactica.
They were headed to Mars. Where all Musk followers should go
Thank you for a factual headline!
If people were as outraged by one gun accident as they are this one tesla going haywire then we wouldn't have such a gun problem. Tesla should probably put driver detection in the seat but they probably already did and these ppl manipulated it or something.
Yikes!
Well, at least it wasn’t a bus.
it doesn’t matter if they were using it or not, if they were, they’re supposed to have their hand on the wheel at all times. doesn’t matter if it’s in a tesla or not lol, it’s just a user error car crash like always
Apparently background checks need to be done before you can own a Tesla to?
Still need a person in the drivers seat.....
Why is it that when crashes happen in a Ford or a Chevrolet when the driver climbs into the backseat to have sex on the freeway, no one blames Ford or Chevrolet, but nooOOOOooo it's TESLA's fault
Hopefully, that tragic Tesla operator and Tesla passenger had their black box data recorded.
Burn the robots!
The good news is that the company (whatever company, not just Tesla) can fix the software and reduce future instances of this in all of their cars all at once. Sadly, we can’t patch human drivers like that.
The autopilot in my Tesla will disengage if someone is not in the driving seat with their hands on the wheel. People have figured out ways to manipulate it leading to these accidents. Auto drive is a very safe feature when used as intended
What hacked car
This isn't tesla's fault at all. I can just hear the dumbasses thoughts. 'Oh this has driver assistence? I'm just gonna turn this on and fuck my girl in the backseat. What could go wrong?'.
Thank you for tweeting this story 5 times a day
makes you wonder if the software for autopilot could be hackable...creating mayhem, we all know there are nuts everywhere...hacking anything
Sure, I might die in a fiery crash, too, but I’ll be driving. I won’t be riding around in a rolling computer waiting for the blue screen of DEATH.
No one was in the drivers seat? Pretty safe bet the drivers assist was being used.
the driver-assist system requires someone be in the seat at all times, you even have put your hand on the wheel frequently
I'm pretty sure my autopilot won't work without someone in the driver's seat - this sounds like a Sheriff that doesn't know how to do accident reconstruction! SenatorJohnBell BillDeSteph KenPlum1
I'm an avid cyclist and very very concerned that Elon Musk is out to get people like me hurt badly with his flawed automated cars.
Nobody’s driving the country either, how ironic.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: TMZ - 🏆 379. / 59 Read more »
Texas Tesla crash: Timeline of crash that killed 2, autopilot mysteryThe deadly, flaming Tesla crash happened on an upscale street near Houston and left a charred wreck. The unsolved mystery is whether anyone was driving. thank you very much for your work How many cars were in accidents that day that resulted in deaths? Only the Tesla accident is news worthy? Does BI have strong stock positions in ICE manufacturers ?
Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »