Two men aged 59 and 69 have died in Spring, Texas (United States) due to an accident in a Tesla that, at that time, was driving without a driver and that hit a tree at high speed causingor a fire that could not be extinguished until after four hours, as reported by local authorities Harris County.

Police officer Mark Herman indicated that the authorities have the “99%” certainty that “no one was driving the car at the time of impact”. They further note that one of the men was in the passenger seat, while the other was in the back of the vehicle, according to the evidence found and the testimony of some witnesses.

The car, a 2019 Tesla S, He was going at “high speed” at around 11:15 p.m. when he went off the road about 30 meters and crashed into a tree in a suburb about 30 miles north of the city of Houston. The wives of the two deceased men had seen them leave shortly before saying they were going to try assisted driving, an intelligent assistance system that Tesla markets as “autopilot.”

Controversy over the ‘autopilot’

Although the researchers they are still investigating if this system was activated During the accident, the controversy has reached the Elon Musk brand, to whom some critics point out the false sense of security that can be generated by marketing assisted driving under the name of “autopilot”.

Nevertheless, Tesla asks its drivers not to neglect driving at any time and invites them to try the intelligent assistance system, since, in the words of Elon Musk, the assistance in driving allows to have “10 times less” chance of accidents.

The United States Highway Safety Agency andis investigating more than 20 accidents with Tesla with the assisted driving system (In one of them, the driver was playing a video game on his mobile). The agency considers implement rules to ensure that drivers attend the wheel.

A big fire

The police officer warned of the time it took for the fire to go out, when normal is that “it would have taken a few minutes” and added that More than 110,000 liters of water were used to extinguish the fire.

According to The New York Times, there is a growing concern about batteries used in electric cars. Mitchell Weston, chief investigator for the county fire department, noted that batteries are “generally safe”, but with impacts at high speeds there can be “thermal leaks” causing “uncontrolled contact” between different materials.

These leaks can cause the battery to catch fire, even several times, something that is still under investigation in this accident.

Categorized in: