Two die in Tesla car crash in Texas with ‘no one’ in driver’s seat

Calahonda52

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/19/two-die-in-tesla-crash-no-one-in-drivers-seat-police
The 2019 Tesla Model S was traveling at high speed when it failed to negotiate a curve and went off the roadway, crashing to a tree and bursting into flames,

Look at the video, its a wonder they know even if the car was occupied at all

Creamy Goodness

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Look at the video, its a wonder they know even if the car was occupied at all

The article says they were found in the passenger and rear seats.

After the fire was extinguished, authorities located two passengers, with one in the front passenger seat while the other was in the back seat of the Tesla, the report said, citing Harris County Precinct 4 police officer Mark Herman.

They wouldn't have videoed that bit.

ELM327

Darwin at work, no sympathy here.

liamog

Do they have to defeat the seat sensor to trick it into thinking is sat in the driver seat?

fits

“ It took firefighters four hours and 30,000 gallons of water to put out fire after crash”

Oh my.

liamog

fits wrote: »

“ It took firefighters four hours and 30,000 gallons of water to put out fire after crash”

Oh my.

Wouldn't of been a fire if they had those Chinese LiPo4 cells

biko

Umanzor said the two crash victims were born in 1962 and 1951.

Unlikely to be Youtubers anyway.

innrain

liamog wrote: »

Do they have to defeat the seat sensor to trick it into thinking is sat in the driver seat?

And the seat belt sensor and the driving wheel sensor.
But I'd say this is not different from tricking any ACC which some say it may increase the risks as people drive faster believing is safer https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-autonomous-safety-idUSKBN2B32NH

josip

fits wrote: »

“ It took firefighters four hours and 30,000 gallons of water to put out fire after crash”

Oh my.

Are you supposed to use water on a battery fire?

[Edit] Seems so.
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/2016_Model_S_Emergency_Response_Guide_en.pdf

liamog

The relevant fire department have clarified the situation, the fire was extinguished within 3 minutes. What subsequently happened was an extended period of dousing the vehicle to ensure the battery pack cooled down and would not recombust.

innrain

So all just a hype because a Tesla is involved
It appears that they've done this on purpose defeating all safety measures. Could have been any modern ACC
Nobody that I red mentioned this https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport?redirect=no in their coverage which I think is relevant in this situations if you want to have a balanced act.

In the 1st quarter, we registered one accident for every 4.19 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged. For those driving without Autopilot but with our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 2.05 million miles driven. For those driving without Autopilot and without our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 978 thousand miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there is an automobile crash every 484,000 miles.

Now the fact that they have this data is a bit ..

basill

Musk says data logs they have recovered indicates autopilot was not engaged and that it would not be possible to engage it on the road the vehicle was traveling on as it had no lane lines.

Mr.David

basill wrote: »

Musk says data logs they have recovered indicates autopilot was not engaged and that it would not be possible to engage it on the road the vehicle was traveling on as it had no lane lines.

Musk is full of sh1t.

AP auto disengages a fraction of a second before a crash so technically he isn't lying.

As for lane lines being required there are lots of videos on twitter of it working without lane lines, apparently it can think kerbs are lane lines?

beauf

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

The article says they were found in t
he passenger and rear seats....

Is it possible the crash impact moved the people around

Creamy Goodness

beauf wrote: »

Is it possible the crash impact moved the people around

Possibly, will we know for sure? I guess only when a full report is done.


I know this could be done in any car with cruise control and the such but would they have if there wasn't such a huge hype over FSD in Tesla's specifically, however this is speculation on my part?

Kramer

Mr.David wrote: »

As for lane lines being required there are lots of videos on twitter of it working without lane lines, apparently it can think kerbs are lane lines?

Or if the road transitions from being marked/having lines, to unmarked, my Model 3 will remain in autopilot for some considerable time, kilometres in fact, given the right circumstances.
It's actually entertaining at times, in real time, watching the car move around & pick its way along an unmarked road.

I've also had my Model 3 run waaaaay wide on a turn on a marked road, finally only disabling autopilot when I manually took control. At that point, it was a good metre onto the wrong side of the road :eek:.

Obviously, nothing coming in those scenarios & I was deliberately waiting to see what the car would do, so 100% safe (I'm a pedant for safety :pac:).

Kramer

In case I'm accused of trolling again - Tesla's system is great on the motorway/dual carriageways etc., but it's a long way from being fully autonomous.

Gumbo

Seemly the fire was extinguished in 3 mins according to the FD.

Edit - I see that info was posted already.