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A Utah driver who slammed his fire Tesla into a fire truck stopped at the beginning of the year while using the semi-autonomous function of the vehicle sued the company saying that the salesmen had told him that the car would stop alone in autopilot mode. something was on his way.
Heather Lommatzsch said in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday that Tesla sellers had told her in 2016 when she had bought the S model that she could simply touch the wheel occasionally while using the autopilot mode. Lommatzsch, 29, said she tried to brake when she saw the cars stopped, but that the car's brakes were not working.
The accident occurred on May 11 in the southern suburbs of Salt Lake City. Lommatzsch broke his foot and was charged with a traffic offense for failing to keep adequate supervision. The driver of the fire truck was injured but was not hospitalized.
Tesla spokesman Dave Arnold said in a statement that the company "has always been clear that Autopilot does not make the car impervious to all accidents".
"When using the autopilot, drivers are constantly asked to keep their hands on the steering wheel and to keep control of the vehicle at all times," Arnold said.
Arnold pointed out that Lommatzsch had been quoted and that the latest police report indicated that she had told the police that she was looking at her phone before the accident. The data from the car showed that Lommatzsch had not hit the wheel for 80 seconds before the crash, according to the report.
Data from his car showed he had accelerated for 3.5 seconds before hitting the fire truck, the report said. The driver then manually hit the brakes a fraction of a second before the impact.
Police suggested that the car track another vehicle and reduced its speed to 55 mph (89 km / h) to match the leading vehicle. They say that the lead vehicle probably changed lanes and that the Tesla accelerated automatically to its preset speed of 100 km / h (97 km / h) without noticing the cars stopped in front.
Lommatzsch claimed to have suffered serious injuries that deprived her of life and resulted in significant medical expenses. She is claiming at least $ 300,000 in damages.
The Utah accident is one of Tesla's many accidents that led to a review of its autopilot, the company's semi-autonomous system designed to keep a vehicle centered on its track at a given distance from the aircraft. cars that precede it. The system can also guide cars to change lanes automatically.
All Teslas are equipped with automatic emergency braking, which, according to Tesla, detects objects and brakes to prevent or reduce the impact of accidents. Tesla warns drivers to be careful and not to rely on the system entirely.
The National Transportation Safety Board recently released initial findings regarding two separate accidents involving Tesla vehicles in which three people died.
The agency found that a Tesla Model S electric car that crashed and burned in Florida last month, killing two teenagers, rolled at 116 mph three seconds before impact and only slowed down to 138 km / h.
The agency said a Tesla Model X SUV using the autopilot had accelerated just before crashing into a California highway barrier in March, killing its driver.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was investigating the Utah crash. The agency did not immediately return an email request for an update of this survey.
A study released in August by the Road Safety Insurance Institute found that cars and trucks equipped with electronic driver assistance systems may not see the stopped vehicles and even drive the driver into a collision. The newspaper, titled "Reality Check", issued a warning after testing five of the Tesla, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo systems on a track and public roads. The result is that they can save your life, systems can fail in many circumstances.
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