Tesla looking at cameras, radar in Florida crash
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla engineers told members of a Senate committee they are looking into the role cameras and radar played in the fatal crash of a Model S using self-driving mode, according to two people familiar with a meeting held Thursday.
The engineers have two main theories, the people said. Either the car’s cameras and radar failed to spot a crossing tractor-trailer. Or the cameras didn’t see the rig and the car’s computer thought the radar signal was false, possibly from an overpass or sign.
Tesla officials disclosed these theories to U.S. Senate Commerce Committee staff members during an hour-long meeting, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the meeting was private. The meeting came at the request of Committee Chairman Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., whose committee oversees transportation and could hold a hearing on self-driving technology at a later date.
The driver of the Model S, Joshua Brown of Canton, Ohio, was killed when the sedan hit the side of a tractor-trailer while traveling nine mph above the speed limit on a highway near Gainesville, Florida, federal accident investigators have said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating the May 7 crash, has said that the car’s Autopilot system was engaged.
Brown, 40, a tech company owner, was using the car’s automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping features at the time, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board said. Those features are part of the vehicle’s Autopilot system.
The Tesla struck the underside of the truck’s 53-foot semitrailer at a 90-degree angle, shearing off the sedan’s roof before it emerged on the other side of the trailer, according to the report. The truck was making a left turn on a highway that allows cross traffic.
Tesla is still working to pinpoint what system failures caused the crash and still believes the safety benefits of semi-autonomous driving systems like Autopilot far outweigh any risks, the people said.