NTSB probes Tesla Autopilot crash that killed driver
CEO Musk defends technology, says he won’t disable it
The safety of Tesla Motors’ partially self-driving car technology is the subject of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation after a May 7 crash that killed a driver who had activated the system in his vehicle.
The NTSB has opened an investigation into the crash that killed 40-year-old Ohio resident Joshua Brown, NTSB spokesman Christopher O’Neil confirmed in an email.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has already launched a probe into the crash.
But the NTSB’s investigation is particularly notable because the organization’s car-crash probes typically center on emerging technologies.
Any conclusion by either organization that the Autopilot system used in Tesla vehicles isn’t ready for the road could undermine public opinion about selfdriving cars and reduce the pace of the technology’s development.
Still, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has defended Autopilot, saying it’s safer than human driving when deployed responsibly. He told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the company would not disable the system.
“A lot of people don’t understand what it is and how you turn it on,” Musk told the Journal.
NTSB’s Office of Highway Safety, which probes about 25 to 30 accidents annually, said it is sending five investigators to the scene of Brown’s crash in Florida.
“The NHTSA investigation will focus on the crucial purpose of determining whether there are defects that need to be addressed — the NTSB investigation will be looking more comprehensively at whether the crash reveals systemic issues that might inform the future development of driverless cars and the investigation of crashes involving autonomous vehicles,” O’Neil said.