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Last January, a 2014 Tesla Model S crashed into a parked fire truck. Although no injuries were reported, he questioned whether assistance to the semi-autonomous driver of the autopilot was engaged prior to the wreckage. Today, the National Transportation Safety Board has released its report on the incident and the facts clearly show that the driver was not aware of what was happening at the time of the accident. accident.
It was also established that the autopilot was activated and remained activated despite the driver's inattention, and it appears to be a case study showing how semi-autonomous driving can be terribly difficult. bad.
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The NTSB opened an investigation into the incident because the pilot stated that the autopilot was activated.
Using the vehicle system data, the NTSB discovered that when the crash occurred, the autopilot was "active and engaged for 13 minutes, 48 seconds". The investigation also revealed: "In the last segment preceding the accident, the driver's hands the steering wheel 12 minutes, 57 seconds. "
During those 13 minutes, the car warned the driver to put his hands on the steering wheel four times, which he did, and then removed them all the same.
In the jargon of the pilots, he "monitored the alarm", which meant that his actions were more focused on system alarms than on the conditions of the road.
The evidence gathered by the NTSB further suggests that the driver was not paying attention to the basic conditions of the vehicle. For example, in an interview, he told the NTSB that he thought the car was spinning at around 65 mph at the time of the crash. In fact, the NTSB found that the Tesla was traveling "between 4 and 24 mph".
In addition to that, there is the question of whether the driver was on the phone at the time of the accident. The driver told the NTSB that he was not there. Although phone records do not show any incoming or outgoing call or text activity, the NTSB notes that this may not take into account any other use of the phone, such as a live chat application or the use of data. The report states that Tesla collected the witness statement from a passenger in a passing car, indicating that the driver appeared to be on the phone or at least distracted:
I could see the driver and I could see his head leaning very far forward while he seemed to be looking at a cell phone or other device that he was holding in his left hand. From what I could see, it turned out that his right hand may have hit the wheel.
Clearly, Tesla would not do its best to obtain a witness statement unless it supported the company's finding that it was a driver error, not a problem autopilot. However, the testimony of the witnesses is more in line with the NTSB's conclusion regarding Tesla's speed at the time of the accident, which stated "the vehicle was traveling closer to 30 to 40 mph".
It is possible that the driver was not distracted by a phone, but by the coffee and bagel he was himself eating at the time of the accident, although he do not remember he had them in his hands at the time of the accident himself.
There are also other, less surprising, details in the NTSB's conclusions. The driver did not read the Tesla manual, like almost everyone who owns a car, anywhere. He inquired about the features and limitations of the autopilot from a Tesla salesman and generally found that the autopilot was reliable. He told investigators that "the autopilot name does not accurately describe its use because the vehicle does not drive completely by itself," but his behavior seems to indicate that he has not fully assimilated this message.
The most damning fact for Tesla is that the NTSB discovered that the last "hand on the wheel" alert had been given "about nine minutes" in the last 13-minute segment preceding the accident, which means that nearly four minutes elapsed between the final alert and the accident. In total, the driver had only his hands on the wheel for 51 seconds of this final 13-minute segment.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment prior to its publication.
By marketing the autopilot as it does, Tesla assumes greater responsibility than other automakers for what drivers do (or do not do) when engaged. Only semi-autonomous cars allow drivers not to drive too long, and almost all the other semi-autonomous features of other manufacturers do not allow drivers to keep their hands free for 12 minutes out of 13 minutes. except GM's Super Cruise, which uses cameras to indicate if the driver is looking at the road in front of him and disengages in seconds if he looks away.
In this case, Tesla and the driver were both incredibly lucky not to have firefighters at the back of the truck at the time of the accident. It could have been a lot worse.
Here's the complete crash of the NTSB Tesla Auto Driver Survey Culver City, California, by GMG Editorial on Scribd:
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