The fatal crash of a vehicle operating under the guidance of an autonomous feature won?t hinder development of self-driving technologies.
It was probably no surprise that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk promised expansion of the fledgling technology Thursday. In a blog post, he wrote that it would be ?morally reprehensible? to delay further introduction of the company?s Autopilot feature, even as it contributed to a fatal crash in May. Perhaps of greater consequence, the head of the federal safety agency charged with ensuring vehicle safety offered his continued support on Thursday as well.
Despite the crash that killed Joshua Brown in May, Mark Rosekind, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said autonomous vehicles hold the potential to save tens of thousands of lives each year on American roadways. ?No one incident will derail the DOT and NHTSA from [their] mission to improve safety on roads through new life-saving technologies,? he said while speaking to a gathering of industry and public-policy experts working on autonomous technologies. Rosekind did not address specifics of the Tesla Motors crash. Investigators from his agency are continuing their probe of the crash in Florida on May 7, in which neither the Autopilot feature nor Brown braked when a tractor-trailer crossed their paths along a divided highway. It was the first known time a fatal collision happened while autonomous technology was activated.

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