The Tesla Autopilot Victim Appears To Have Been Distracted By ‘Harry Potter’ Before The Fatal Crash

We reported earlier this week that Tesla confirmed the first fatality of a driver using their Autopilot feature which is still technically in a public beta phase. Tesla made it clear that the accident occurred not because of an Autopilot malfunction, but rather from an extremely distracted driver.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating the crash which took place in Florida back in May between the Tesla and a semi truck. Now, Florida Highway Patrol officials have confirmed to Reuters that a DVD player was found in Joshua Brown’s Tesla Model S.

Sergeant Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol said to Reuters on Friday that there was a portable DVD player in Model S, but did not want to say anything more than that. DVD players that can be viewed by drivers are illegal in the state of Florida, however they are not in Ohio where the 40-year-old former tech company owner and ex-Navy SEAL lived. Frank Baressi who was the driver of the semi truck told CNBC on Friday, that the Tesla driver was,”playing Harry Potter on the TV screen at the time of the crash and driving so quickly that he went so fast through my trailer I didn’t see him.” Baressi did say that he could only hear the movie which continued to play after the crash.

Another witness agreed with Baressi stating that they also could hear a Harry Potter film playing after the crash. However, another witness who claims to have been the first person there before Florida state troopers arrived said that there was no audio coming from the vehicle. If Brown was watching a film, it is unclear if he was using the 17-inch in-dash touch screen or the smaller screen of the DVD player. Tesla did say that DVD playback is unavailable while the vehicle is in motion, but like any high tech device, there are several hacks that can be performed to override this.

(Via: Reuters/ CNBC)

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