Skip to main content

Two deaths in Tesla crash with no driver

Victims found in the front and back seats - but this was not an autonomous vehicle
By Ben Spencer April 21, 2021 Read time: 1 min
Tesla says data recovered so far showed Autopilot was not enabled (© Sylvain Robin | Dreamstime.com)

Two men were killed after a Tesla vehicle crashed into a tree in Houston, Texas, sparking an investigation.

The 2019 Tesla Model S was travelling at a high speed when it failed to negotiate a curve on a winding road.

A report by the BBC says police believe there was nobody present in the driver's seat at the time of the accident. 

Mark Herman, Harris County Precinct 4 constable, is quoted as saying that evidence suggests “no-one was driving the vehicle at the time of impact”. 

He added that the case was still under investigation. 

One victim was found in the front passenger seat and the other was in the back of the vehicle. 

Tesla says data recovered so far showed the Autopilot advanced driver assistance system was not enabled. 

A Tesla Model X operating in autopilot claimed the life of a driver in 2018 after the vehicle crashed into a roadside barrier in California. 

During the same year, Uber pulled out of its autonomous vehicle operation in Arizona after one of its test vehicles killed a pedestrian.

 

Related Content

  • Here offers data to improve driver safety
    April 27, 2021
    Data from ClearWeather will allow companies to develop software solutions on Here platform 
  • Making transportation systems safer and more sustainable with connectivity
    August 6, 2021
    Connectivity will make transportation systems safer and more sustainable as Anne-Lise Thieblemont of Qualcomm outlines
  • Netherlands bans electric carts after four children killed
    October 8, 2018
    The Dutch government has banned electric carts following a road-rail collision which killed four children in the southern town of Oss. The Stint cart carrying the children - aged four to eight - was hit by a train at a level crossing, the BBC says. A witness heard the 32-year-old female driver from a daycare centre shout that her brakes had failed. The driver and a fifth child were seriously injured in the crash. Stints can carry up to 10 children who are strapped in with a s eatbelt. The driver is
  • Mobileye breaks ties with Tesla on grounds of safety
    September 16, 2016
    According to Reuters (link http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mobileye-tesla-idUSKCN11K2T8), Mobileye has broken ties with Tesla Motors because it felt the Silicon Valley firm was “pushing the envelope in terms of safety” with the design of its Autopilot driver-assistance system. "It is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner," Amnon Shashua, who is also chief technology officer at the Israel-based maker of collision detection and driver assistance systems, told Reuters.