The owner of Tesla, who died in the accident a year ago, ignored the warnings of the Autopilot system about the danger

Tesla condition after accident



A year ago, the Tesla Model S car with the included autopilot system got into an accident . Its outcome is a twisted car and the death of a driver. Immediately after it became known about the incident, Tesla announced that this was the first driver’s death for 210 million km, which the company drove through in autopilot mode. The cause of the accident - a confluence of circumstances that led to the fact that neither the driver nor the autopilot did not notice the obstacle. This obstacle was a wagon of light color against a brightly lit sky.



Due to the fact that the autopilot cameras did not distinguish the parts, the braking system was not activated and the car drove at full speed under the wagon. In an official statement, the situation is described as follows: "High ground clearance, coupled with the position of the semi-trailer on the road and extremely rare circumstances, led to the Model S passing under the trailer, and the lower part of the trailer collided with the Model S windshield." Now new circumstances have come to light, which may become arguments in favor of the fact that the autopilot still worked as it should, trying to warn the driver about the danger.



It is worth noting that the new data is provided not by the interested party - Tesla, but by the regulator, the US road service. So, it turned out that Joshua Brown received at least six beeps, calling for the driver to put his hands on the steering wheel. He also received visual warnings, seven times. They were displayed on the Tesla control panel. But the driver paid absolutely no attention to all this.



The report says that Brown kept his hands on the wheel only 10% of the total trip time. That is, he completely relied on Tesla's Autopiot and went about his business. So far, officials have not made any official conclusions, since the investigation is still ongoing. But the fact that the driver violated all the instructions and rules drawn up by both the road service and Tesla is already clear.



Due to the fact that Tesla captures all the actions of the driver and autopilot, it became possible to understand exactly what Brown did on his last trip. Attention to detail is maximum here, since Tesla’s reputation also depends on the findings of the commission. Despite the fact that the company was initially acquitted, many potential buyers of Tesla Inc electric vehicles still have it. some distrust of these cars remains.



So, according to published data, the duration of Brown's last trip was 41 minutes. Of these, 37 minutes was active autopilot. The Autopilot system of electric vehicles of the company, despite its name, is not a fully robotized control system (Autopilot 2.0 is promised to make it), but only an assistant driver. The company itself is precisely this positioning system - it should help the driver on the road, complement its capabilities, and not drive the car all the time.





Crash site



Tesla recommends keeping your hands on the wheel even when the Autopilot is on. But it seems that Brown was so sure of his “Tessie,” that he ignored any security warnings that, by the way, were repeated often enough. In the last two minutes before the incident, he even increased the speed, again taking his hands off the wheel.



Information provided by Tesla (all telemetry is recorded while traveling) indicates that the driver did not attempt to brake. It turns out that he did not see the truck until the moment of the accident, when it was already too difficult to do anything. After the accident, Tesla changed the behavior of Autopilot. Now, if the driver too often ignores her warnings, he runs the risk of deactivating the autopilot. Again, it will turn on only during the next trip.



Tesla claims that if the collision had occurred not in the middle of the truck, but in the front or rear part, the auto security system would probably be able to see the obstacle and slow down in time. And even if an accident had happened, the driver would most likely have survived.



Unfortunately, the incident developed under the worst scenario, and the driver’s life could not be saved. He himself was a supporter of electric cars and modern technologies related to cars. He is also the author of a viral video showing a case where Tesla autopilot saved Brown from a collision with a truck.



Well, the final results of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be able to be announced only after the investigation itself has been completed. And it still goes on.