Crash kills two in "driverless" Tesla which burned for hours

by

Two men have died in a road accident in which a Tesla Model S, which was believed to be driverless, hit a tree north of Houston, Texas, authorities have reported.

According to local television station KHOU-TV, the car was travelling at a high speed when it failed to negotiate a curve ahead. Instead, it left the road and crashed into a tree, immediately bursting into flames.

"There was no one in the driver’s seat," said Sgt. Cinthya Umanzor of the Harris County Constable Precinct 4.

Also read: VW and Microsoft team up for self-driving cars

While Tesla vehicles come with an auto-driver system, it is unclear if the vehicle was using the feature. 

The local Woodlands Fire Department said that it had been called to a reported fire in the area just before 21:30 on Saturday night. The station later reported that despite efforts to douse the flames, the batteries continued to ignite - not unusual in electric car batteries - and that it had taken four hours and 87,000 litres of water to extinguish the blaze.

After the fire was extinguished, local police identified the two occupants. The KHOU-TV report cited Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman as saying that one was in the front passenger seat, and the other in the back seat.

Tesla has not commented on the incident, which comes at a time of increasing scrutiny over its semi-automated driving system after a number of recent accidents. The company is also preparing a launch an updated version of its "full self-driving" software to more customers.

The company's CEO Elon Musk, however, responded late on Saturday night with a tweet, citing the company's Q1 2021 safety report, saying: "Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of accident than average vehicle."

In March, the US automotive safety agency said that it had opened 27 investigations into accidents involving Tesla vehicles, at least three of which were recent.

Also read: Tesla scrutinised by German court over Autopilot claims

Last year, a court in Munich, Germany found that Tesla had made misleading claims about its 'Autopilot' feature and banned the company from repeating the claims. 

In January, Musk said that the company anticipated making large profits from its full self-driving software, adding that he was "highly confident the car will be able to drive itself with reliability in excess of human this year."

The technology still has to overcome a number of regulatory and safety hurdles, as well as public apprehension, to achieve commercial success.

Back to Homepage

Back to Transportation