Currently, US federal agencies are still investigating the cause of the Tesla accident of the Model S 2019 that caused two people to die while on the road.
In many interviews, local police said that the car was driving itself as it crashed off the road, hit a tree, and caught fire.
The autopilot system does not concern with the Tesla accident
On April 19, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on social media that the autopilot system of the car does not concern with the fatal Tesla accident in Spring, Texas.
However, Elon Musk disagrees with that. “According to the recovered black box data at the moment, the Autopilot system has not been activated. The car has not acquired the license for the FSD steering system (which has a higher automatic ability). Standard autonomous driving (Autopilot) requires lane markings, something that this street doesn’t have, “said Elon Musk.
Tesla sells its autopilot system code-named Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (aka FSD). The company has also released a “beta” version of the FSD system for customers who want to upgrade for $ 10,000.
Neither Tesla’s Autopilot nor FSD is authorized to have full control over the vehicle. The company’s manual says these systems are only activated when they are under “active scrutiny.”
Autopilot driving mode is currently standard on Tesla cars but not always completely accurate. They may mistake patched cracks in the roadway for road markings or bicycle lanes for other marked spots. But it seems that this error can hardly lead to serious Tesla accidents.
Besides, Tesla’s autonomous driving system can also be misused by users. Recently, a teen driver proved that Tesla’s autopilot is still working when he leaves the driver’s seat. However, if something goes wrong under these circumstances, Tesla probably won’t be held responsible.
Back to the Tesla accident of the Model S 2019, the police discovered the car 30 meters off the road before crashing into a tree and catching fire.
Police discovered the bodies of 2 victims completely deformed in the car after the fire was not controlled.
The fire brigade had to use more than 113,000 liters of water and took nearly 4 hours to control the fire from the Tesla accident.
Owning a large battery system, the fire and explosion with Tesla cars will be more terrible than conventional vehicles.
However, no studies have concluded that using Elon Musk’s electric car is more likely to cause fires than using conventional vehicles, though concerns are expressed by some.
In the first trading session after the crash, Tesla shares fell 3.5% to $ 714.63.
The wave of electric cars has helped push Tesla’s market cap so high in recent months. Even this is also the car company with the largest market capitalization in the world, despite being far behind in terms of output by other competitors.
Tesla’s price hike also makes Elon Musk one of the richest people in the world.
Recently, this wildly famous billionaire has attracted even more attention when continuously making comments on cryptocurrencies and other hot topics of the financial market.
Musk also allows customers to buy Tesla cars with Bitcoin.
“Tesla is 10 times safer than a conventional car”
Previously, according to The Driven, Tesla just released a report showing that Tesla cars with Autopilot mode are nearly 10 times safer than conventional cars, reducing the risk of nearly 90% causing the car to cause an accident.
Meanwhile, even when the driver does not activate Autopilot, the active safety features on Tesla also reduce the risk of accidents by up to 5 times compared to the US average.
Without all of the above features, Tesla car crashes are less than half the US average.
The Tesla report comes in the context of the Tesla accident that killed two people in Houston, Texas.
The police are still investigating the incident. When the Tesla accident happened, the car crashed into a tree and caught fire. After the Tesla accident, authorities are asking authorities to more closely monitor the self-driving capabilities of Tesla electric vehicles.
The company is preparing to add a “download button” to its “fully autonomous” software that’s in beta. They also received criticism for allowing untrained drivers to test the software.
“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 drive,” the EV maker wrote in a post published via its website.
“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.”
For comparison, data from the US National Traffic Safety Commission, the average accident rate in this country is 1 case for every 484,000 miles traveled.”
This information was then shared by CEO Elon Musk on his personal Twitter page with the comment: “Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of accident than average vehicles.”
According to Reuters, the US National Safety Commission recorded 27 incidents involving Tesla vehicles in March 2021.
Tesla Model 3 – its best-selling electric car for three consecutive years received the Top Safety Pick + award from insurance organization IIHS in the mid-size luxury car segment.
This award is based on physical collision mitigation and avoidance features including vehicle structure, driver/pedestrian injury prevention measures, and quality of headlights.
