Two people were killed in Texas in the fiery crash of a Tesla and authorities said there was no one in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash, although it is not clear whether the car’s driver-assist system was being used.
A Harris County constable told television stations in Houston that there was a person in the front passenger seat and another in a rear passenger seat after the wreck on Saturday night in the Houston suburb of Spring.
Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said authorities are certain that no one was driving the car at the time of the crash.
Photo: Reuters / Scott J. Engle
“They feel very confident just with the positioning of the bodies after the impact that there was no one driving that vehicle,” Herman told KHOU-TV.
The car was traveling fast and failed to navigate a turn before running off the road, hitting a tree and bursting into flames, deputies said.
The identity of the victims had not been released by Sunday afternoon. KHOU reported that one was 69 and the other was 59.
Tesla Inc did not immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Federal traffic safety officials are investigating several Tesla crashes in which the vehicle’s Autopilot function might have been used, including crashes in which cars drove under tractor-trailers.
The company warns customers that its driver-assist system, called Autopilot, is not an autonomous-driving program, and that they must pay attention and be ready to take control of the vehicle.
However, the US National Transportation Safety Board last year said that the design of the system allows drivers to avoid paying attention and fails to limit where Autopilot can be used.
KPRC-TV reported that a brother-in-law of one of the victims said it took four hours to extinguish the blaze.
Authorities said the vehicle’s batteries repeatedly reignited, and Herman said that deputies called Tesla to ask how to put out the fire.
Tesla publishes information for first responders, including the location of high-voltage lines.
Separately, a disgruntled Tesla owner climbed atop one of the electric vehicle pioneer’s cars on the opening day of the Shanghai Auto Show, before being dragged away by security.
Wearing a white T-shirt with Chinese writing that translated as “Brake lost control,” the woman climbed onto a red Model 3 in Tesla’s modest booth yesterday, according to videos and photographs circulating on social media.
Tesla said the woman, a car owner from Henan, “is widely known for having repeatedly protested against Tesla’s brake issue.”
Tesla “places great emphasis” on consumer rights, and has raised several solutions in previous negotiations with the woman, but she insisted on returning the car, while refusing to have an independent checkup, a company representative said.
The woman claims the brakes of her Model 3 failed and four of her family members were almost killed in an accident, Shine News reported last month.
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