A Tesla Model X crashed while in autopilot mode early Saturday morning when the car swerved off a narrow Montana road. This is the third serious collision related to Tesla’s self-driving feature. Fortunately, neither the driver — who goes only by the last name Pang — nor his passenger were injured in the accident.
Pang told CNN Money that he did not receive a warning from his car that he was in danger or needed to act. Tesla contradicted this in a statement of their own, in which they claim, “As road conditions became increasingly uncertain, the vehicle again alerted the driver to put his hands on the wheel. He did not do so and shortly thereafter the vehicle collided with a post on the edge of the roadway.”
The first of three serious autopilot accidents was a fatal crash in Florida that took place this May. Federal safety agencies including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating that crash. A second serious yet non-fatal collision took place last week.
Tesla Motors’ CEO Elon Musk told the Wall Street Journal he has no plans to disable Tesla’s autopilot feature, and would instead be focusing on consumer education. “A lot of people don’t understand what it is and how you turn it on,” he said.
(Via CNN Money & Wall Street Journal)