Tesla says autopilot involved in second car crash

Tesla cars use radar and other sensors to detect other vehicles and road markings

Tesla has admitted that its autopilot feature was activated when one of its cars crashed on Sunday.

However, the electric carmaker has suggested that the function was not being used correctly at the time. The motorist survived the accident, but another Tesla owner died in an earlier crash that occurred when the driver-assist function failed to detect another vehicle in its path.

The crash in Montana involved a Model X car

Chief executive Elon Musk said Tesla had no plans to disable autopilot. However, he told the Wall Street Journal that his company would publish a blog highlighting how drivers should make use of the technology.

Joshua Brown died after his Tesla S crashed while using autopilot

He also tweeted that it was right that Tesla should be "taking the heat for customer safety". The California-based carmaker has previously blogged that "customers using autopilot are statistically safer than those not using it at all".

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Tesla's deployment of the technology is being investigated by the US road safety watchdog.

'Ignored alerts'

The latest crash, near Cardwell, Montana, saw a Model X car swerve to hit wooden rails next to a two-lane road. "This vehicle was being driven along an undivided mountain road shortly after midnight with autosteer enabled," a spokeswoman said, referring to autopilot's steering function.

"The data suggests that the driver's hands were not on the steering wheel, as no force was detected on the steering wheel for over two minutes after autosteer was engaged - even a very small amount of force, such as one hand resting on the wheel, will be detected.

"This is contrary to the terms of use that are agreed to when enabling the feature and the notification presented in the instrument cluster each time it is activated. "As road conditions became increasingly uncertain, the vehicle again alerted the driver to put his hands on the wheel.

"He did not do so, and shortly thereafter the vehicle collided with a post on the edge of the roadway.
"Autosteer... is best suited for highways with a centre divider. "We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads."