On May 7, 2016, Joshua Brown, 40, of Williston, Florida was heading down the highway in his Tesla Model S, using the car’s autopilot mode, when he fatally collided with a tractor trailer. The truck took a left-turn in front of his vehicle, and according to a news release issued by Tesla, “Neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.”
A Navy veteran and owner of a technology consulting firm, Brown had used the autopilot mode before, even going so far as to record videos of himself riding in the car under its guidance.
The tragic death is also a historic one, as the first known fatality involving an autonomous vehicle. Federal regulators have opened up an investigation into Brown’s death at a time when car companies, technology firms, and legislators are all scrambling towards the seemingly inevitable future of ubiquitous autonomous vehicles.
Tesla maintains that their autopilot mode is still very much new technology, and “is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times.” Tesla did not say who (or what) is at fault in this instance.
More on the gordian nature of autonomous vehicles:
8 Comments
Augurs badly for the much trumpeted future of driverless cars.
Who could possibly have foreseen that this might happen?
This is ridiculous. Nearly 1.3 million people die in vehicle related accidents (driven by humans) every year and this is just one of 34,000 that died today.
i think it should be obvious that if the semi was being driven by a computer this wouldn't have happened.
If all cars/trucks were driven by computers it would be a lot safer.
Mica is correct of course. Planes crashed all the time, people died, yet, here we are. No one cares, and in the long run, this incident will make autonomous driving more safe.
Respect for Amelia's use of gordian as adjective(?)...here!
“Neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.”
yikes! I'd think they'd have safer technology like sonar or one that scans forms and solid objects than one that senses and differentiates objects based on light or color.. Car bodies reflect so much especially on a bright day.
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