Two dead after driverless Tesla car crashes in US

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JaseNZ

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#284391 19-Apr-2021 10:24

The fully electric 2019 Tesla crashed intro a tree in Houston, Texas overnight, with two passengers, but no one at the wheel.

Perhaps the avoid trees option was either not ticked or they had not paid for that option.

A bit tongue in cheek and it is never nice to see anybody die.

I have no idea on stats for fully auto elec car accidents caused by the car itself.

I assume they are still a hell of a lot safer than a manually operated car ??

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#2694714 19-Apr-2021 10:38

Autopilot != 100% Self Driving

Anyone being killed is not good, but idiots will always find ways to win a darwin award. If they were not in the drivers seat when they crashed, I'd assume they weren't wearing seat belts either. Another thing not noted on this story is if autopilot was even enabled when they crashed. It might have been that they just enabled cruise control, which wouldn't steer the car, just drive straight.

Still, idiots will idiot regardless of technology or saftety controls are in place.

sleemanj

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#2694732 19-Apr-2021 11:01

Yeah, I don't think this was an auto pilot crash.

Tesla auto pilot needs somebody in the drivers seat AFAIK (except for summoning, which is slow speed).

Tesla auto pilot needs lane marking AFAIK and I don't think this road had them (from reading other commentary which indicated this was an unmarked road).

Much simpler explanation is that the driver wasn't belted in and was thrown across into the passenger seat.

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frankv

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#2694734 19-Apr-2021 11:05

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/04/18/2-men-dead-after-fiery-tesla-crash-in-spring-officials-say/

Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputies said the vehicle was traveling at a high speed when it failed to negotiate a cul-de-sac turn, ran off the road and hit the tree.

The owner, he said, backed out of the driveway, and then may have hopped in the back seat only to crash a few hundred yards down the road. He said the owner was found in the back seat upright.

The brother-in-law of one of the victims said relatives watched the car burn for four hours as authorities tried to tap out the flames.

The photos show a *very* burnt-out wreck. I'm surprised at that... I hadn't thought there was that much actual lithium metal in a battery.Presumably once the first battery cell starts burning, it generates enough heat to remove the covering of the next battery. Hopefully the fire brigade were trying to put it out with foam rather than just water. What appears to be an armco barrier in one photo is in fact the ramp of the tow truck.

The video shows a slight curve in the road, with a low-angle kerb and no white stripes anywhere. Maybe the autopilot had lost the road edge, and then thought the road edge/kerb was the centreline, and was avoiding the fire hydrant and the first tree?

mikebails

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#2694736 19-Apr-2021 11:12

frankv:

The video shows a slight curve in the road, with a low-angle kerb and no white stripes anywhere. Maybe the autopilot had lost the road edge, and then thought the road edge/kerb was the centreline, and was avoiding the fire hydrant and the first tree?

Not likely, once its enabled it sees curves even without road markings. What likely happend is they enabled crusie control, but not autopilot - once down on the shifter as opposed to twice down which would speed up to the speed limit for the road but not steer.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2694738 19-Apr-2021 11:14

The most worrying thing here is the Tweet claiming "Firefighters say they had to call Tesla to figure out how to oust the blaze."

sleemanj

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#2694740 19-Apr-2021 11:16

https://twitter.com/alandail/status/1383864028859027458

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Obraik

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#2694746 19-Apr-2021 11:28

This isn't really news. Someone crashed a car by being an idiot and unfortunately, paid the ultimate price for it.

Even if Autopilot was engaged, it's not a hands off self driving system and this is made very clear in the car. The crash is said to be highspeed but Autopilot cannot drive excessively faster than a roads speed limit. Autopilot will also disengage and stop the car if it does not sense weight on the seat and/or steering wheel nags are annoyed, unless cheats are made.

The only reason that this is news is because it's a Tesla and crashing a Tesla makes the news.

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frankv

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#2694755 19-Apr-2021 11:57

sleemanj:

Much simpler explanation is that the driver wasn't belted in and was thrown across into the passenger seat.

Or, even simpler, the driver couldn't get the driver's door open so tried to get out the passenger side.

But, with only 2 in the car, why was one person (the car's owner) in the back seat? So, I think that the driver ended up in the rear seat somehow (seatback collapsed and/or thrown there in the collision and/or tried to get out the car that way).

tripper1000

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#2694757 19-Apr-2021 12:00

Tesla have aluminium bodies which melt and look worse than burnt steel cars.

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#2694764 19-Apr-2021 12:12

let this be investigated then we'll know what actually happened (or not)

Journeyman

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#2694897 19-Apr-2021 17:32

Would a whole lot of foam be better at putting out battery fires? I know some trucks have foam and can introduce an amount of it into the water they're using. But I wonder if they can just dump all the foam on a big battery fire?

sbiddle

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#2695012 19-Apr-2021 20:38

Journeyman:

Would a whole lot of foam be better at putting out battery fires? I know some trucks have foam and can introduce an amount of it into the water they're using. But I wonder if they can just dump all the foam on a big battery fire?

Once thermal runaway has started you can't really stop it.. Basically water and more water and more water. Foam can help, but it's not a magic fix.

Here's the extract from the Tesla guide for emergency services

driller2000

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#2695049 19-Apr-2021 21:25

I fully expect self drive cars to eventually be safer than us humans that make poor / bad decisions - and the data seems to suggest they are already getting there:

https://t.co/HYc6vcgBoR?amp=1

gzt

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#2695075 19-Apr-2021 23:44

Battery position is something like this:

sbiddle

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#2695103 20-Apr-2021 07:25

driller2000:

I fully expect self drive cars to eventually be safer than us humans that make poor / bad decisions - and the data seems to suggest they are already getting there:

We are still many years away from full self driving cars even being close to being ready for market in anything but controlled situations. There are so many things they simply can't cope with.

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