Tesla’s autopilot expose itself again in the eye of the storm, as we saw a Tesla Model S hit a barrier on a highway near Dallas, Texas, with the driver, who only came out with minor bruises, blaming Tesla’s Autopilot for the crash.
The driver described the accident in a Reddit post on Monday:
“I was driving in the left lane of a two lane highway. The car is AP1 (first generation Autopilot) and I’ve never had any problems until today. Autopilot was on and didn’t give me a warning. It misread the road and hit the barrier. After the airbags deployed there was a bunch of smoke and my car rolled to a grinding stop. Thankfully no one was hurt and I walked away with only bruises.”
Tesla has repeatedly been iterating that Tesla’s Autopilot is only a “driver assist” system and thus, requires the drivers to remain vigilant and keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times.
Tesla explains what the feature does:
“AEB does not engage when an alternative collision avoidance strategy (e.g., driver steering) remains viable. Instead, when a collision threat is detected, forward collision warning alerts the driver to encourage them to take appropriate evasive action.”