In April, Tesla Model S owner Joshua D. Brown recorded and posted to his YouTube channel a video that showed how the ?Autopilot? feature in his car helped him avert a collision. About one month later, the semi-autonomous system was active when he was in an accident that resulted in his death.
Brown, a 40-year-old resident of Canton, Ohio, was identified in police records as the victim in a fatal crash that occurred May 7 in Williston, Florida. Federal safety regulators and Tesla Motors acknowledged Thursday that the crash occurred while the car was operating in self-driving mode.
The incident marks the first known time a motorist has been killed in a car while it operated with autonomous features engaged.
Officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tesla recently notified them of the crash. They?ve begun a preliminary investigation into the collision that will examine the design and performance of the 2015 Tesla Model S. Investigators could upgrade their probe into an engineering analysis at a later date. The crash occurred at 4:41 p.m. in clear conditions at the intersection of U.S. Highway 27 and Northeast 140th Court, according to police records. Officials say a tractor-trailer owned by Okemah Express, LLC, turned left in front of Brown, who was headed east on U.S. 27 with his Model S’s Autopilot mode engaged. A Florida Highway Patrol investigation into the crash is ongoing.
In a written statement, Tesla Motors said, ?Neither Autopilo...