Authorities in Washington state have determined that a Tesla that hit and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle in April was operating on the company's "Full Self-Driving" system at the time of the crash. Investigators from the Washington State Patrol made the discovery after downloading information from the event-data recorder on the 2022 Tesla Model S, agency spokesman Capt. Deion Glover said. "The investigation is still ongoing in this case," Glover told the AP. The Snohomish County prosecutor will determine if any charges are filed in the case, he said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week that "Full Self-Driving" should be able to run without human supervision by the end of this year. He has been promising a fleet of robotaxis for several years. During the company's earnings conference call, he acknowledged that his predictions on the issue "have been overly optimistic in the past." After the crash in a suburban area about 15 miles northeast of Seattle, the driver told a trooper that he was using Tesla's Autopilot system and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was moving.
"The next thing he knew there was a bang and the vehicle lurched forward as it accelerated and collided with the motorcycle in front of him," the trooper wrote in a probable-cause document. The 56-year-old driver was arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide "based on the admitted inattention to driving, while on Autopilot mode, and the distraction of the cell phone while moving forward, putting trust in the machine to drive for him," the affidavit said. The motorcyclist, 28-year-old Jeffrey Nissen, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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- Nissen's death is at least the second in the US involving Tesla's "Full Self Driving" system. In investigative documents, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said earlier it had found one fatality and 75 crashes while the system was being used. It wasn't clear whether the system was at fault in the fatality.
- Tesla has two partially automated driving systems, "Full Self-Driving," which can take on many driving tasks even on city streets, and Autopilot, which can keep a car in its lane and away from objects in front of it. Sometimes the names are confused by Tesla owners and the public. Tesla says at present neither system can drive itself and that human drivers must be ready to take control at any time.
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