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Tesla with 'no driver' involved in deadly Texas crash: report
The vehicle was driving at high speed late Saturday north of Houston when it slammed into a tree and burst into flames, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting Harris County constable Mark Herman.
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A screen grab of a news broadcast showing the charred wreckage of a Tesla sedan involved in a Texas crash on April 18, 2021. (The Jakarta Post/Twitter/Miami Herald)
T
wo men were killed in a crash in Texas while riding in a Tesla car that police said almost certainly had no one behind the wheel, US media reported Sunday.
The vehicle was driving at high speed late Saturday north of Houston when it slammed into a tree and burst into flames, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting Harris County constable Mark Herman.
"Our preliminary investigation is determining -- but it's not complete yet -- that there was no one at the wheel of that vehicle," he said. "We're almost 99.9 percent sure."
When police arrived, one of the two victims was sitting in the front passenger seat and the other in the rear seat.
Herman said police had not yet determined whether the driver-side airbag had deployed and whether the car's driver assistance system was engaged at the time of the crash.
AFP was not able to reach the local police for comment.
On its website, Tesla warns that the driver assistance systems it offers do not make their vehicles fully autonomous and that active driver supervision is still necessary.
But videos regularly show moving Teslas with drivers asleep or without their hands on the wheel for extended periods of time.
Reuters reported the 2019 Tesla Model S was traveling at a high rate of speed, when it failed to negotiate a curve and went off the roadway, crashing to a tree and bursting into flames, local television station KHOU-TV said.
After the fire was extinguished, authorities located 2 occupants in the vehicle, with one in the front passenger seat while the other was in the back seat of the Tesla, the report said, citing Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.
The accident comes amid growing scrutiny over Tesla's semi-automated driving system following recent accidents and as it is preparing to launch its updated "full self-driving" software to more customers.
The US auto safety agency said in March it has opened 27 investigations into crashes of Tesla vehicles; at least three of the crashes occurred recently.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in January that he expects huge profits from its full self-driving software, saying he is "highly confident the car will be able to drive itself with reliability in excess of human this year."
