Tesla’s new speed control feature dedicated to teen

Tesla dedicated its new speed control feature to a Fort Lauderdale teenager who was killed in a crash where one of the company’s sedans hit 116 mph.

Barrett Riley, 18, of Fort Lauderdale, and Edgar Monserratt Martinez, 18, of Aventura, were killed when the 2014 Tesla Model S crashed and caught fire on May 8. Injured was Alexander Berry, 18, of Fort Lauderdale, who was thrown from the burning wreck.

In an owners manual update available Saturday, Tesla drivers can limit the car’s speed between 50 mph and 90 mph.

The update includes one line: “In memory of Barrett Riley,” according to screen grabs posted on the website electrek.co.

Riley was driving his father’s Tesla, which was headed south along Seabreeze Boulevard, which has a posted speed limit of 30 mph, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Tuesday.

The luxury electric sedan, which does not use gasoline, was traveling at 116 mph when it crashed, the NTSB report said.

After Riley was cited for speeding last March, his father asked Tesla to adjust the vehicle’s speed through an over-the-air adjustment, according to the website Teslarati.com. Speed adjustments are already being implemented on loaner vehicles, which are limited to 85 mph, the website said.

The car’s lithium-ion high-voltage battery ignited twice more after the initial fire, as the Model S sedan was being loaded onto a tow truck and again at a storage yard, the NTSB said.

Staff writer Linda Trischitta contributed to this report.