Operator Was Watching Film And Speeding.
A driver with a history of speeding who was so enamoured of his Tesla Model S sedan that he nicknamed the car “Tessy“ and praised the safety benefits of its sophisticated ", Autopilot" system has become the first US fatality in a wreck involving a car in self-driving mode. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the driver's death on Thursday , and said it is investigating the design and performance of the Autopilot system.
Joshua D Brown of Canton, Ohio, the 40-year-old owner of a technology company, was killed on May 7, 2016 in Williston, Florida, when his car's cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer from a brightly lit sky and didn't automatically activate its brakes, according to statements by the government and the automaker. Just one month earlier, Brown had credited the Autopilot system for preventing a collision.
Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the truck and owner of Okemah Express LLC, said 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." The movie "was still playing when he died," Baressi said. He, however, acknowledged he didn't see the movie, only heard it. A digital video disc player was found in the car.
Tesla Motors Inc said it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touch screen. There was no reference to the movie in initial police reports.
Brown's driving record showed he had eight speeding tickets in a six-year span. His published obituary described him as a member of the Navy SEALs for 11years and founder of Nexu Innovations Inc, working on wireless internet networks and camera systems.
Tesla said that this was the first known death in over 130 million miles of Autopilot operation. Before Autopilot can be used, drivers have to acknowledge that the system is an "assist feature" that requires a driver to keep both hands on the wheel at all time.
