Tesla knew about Autopilot weakness that led to driver's death but didn't fix it - Autopilot developers
Tesla Autopilot engineers claim that company executives not only knew about the system's inability to detect and react to cross traffic, but did nothing to fix the problem.
Here's What We Know
The allegations came to light during a civil lawsuit filed against Tesla over a crash that killed 50-year-old Jeremy Banner in 2019. His vehicle slammed into a tractor-trailer crosswise. Banner had activated the Autopilot system 10 seconds before the crash.
Apparently, neither the software nor the driver was able to see and react to the other vehicle in time.
Banner's family, who filed a lawsuit against Tesla shortly after his death, claimed that the automaker knew about Autopilot's inability to handle cross traffic after a similar accident in 2016. Developers took no action to fix the problem, which led to another fatal crash, the victims claim.
The testimony of two engineers who developed Autopilot may prove crucial to the Banner family's case. According to the statements of one of them, the system was released without a cross-traffic detection feature.
The other engineer said that Autopilot was designed to be used only on motorways with a dividing lane because it was "very difficult" for the car's hardware and software to take cross traffic into account.
He added that the system was designed to detect the presence of a centre dividing lane and was smart enough to switch off if there was none. Nevertheless Autopilot continued to operate off the motorway.
During the deposition, the statements of both engineers were virtually identical. One of them also claims to have investigated the causes of the 2016 crash. However, Tesla did not take the findings into account and made no changes to the Autopilot system, he concluded.
Go Deeper:
- Elon Musk promises to launch a fully unmanned Tesla this year
- US regulators request more records on Tesla's autopilot
- California launches investigation against Tesla over autopilot safety issues and false advertising
- Tesla's safety system allowed the teddy bear to use Full Self-Driving drone mode
Source: The Register
