Authorities in Washington state have confirmed that a Tesla car operating on Elon Musk’s “Full Self-Driving” system was involved in a fatal crash with a motorcycle.
AP News Reports In a recent development, Washington State Police investigators determined that a 2022 Tesla Model S that struck and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle in April was engaged in the company’s “full self-driving” (FSD) system at the time of the accident. The discovery came after authorities downloaded information from the vehicle’s event data recorder, according to agency spokesman Lt. Deion Glover. The investigation is still ongoing, and the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office is expected to determine whether to file charges in the case.
The Tesla driver, a 56-year-old man, admitted to using the Autopilot system and looking at his phone while driving. “The next thing he knew, he heard a loud noise and his vehicle accelerated rapidly, catapulting forward and striking a motorcycle in front of him,” the officer wrote in charging documents. The driver was later arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, according to the affidavit, for “admitting that he was inattentive while driving while in Autopilot mode, was distracted by his phone while moving forward, and believed the machine would drive the car for him.”
The motorcyclist, identified as 28-year-old Jeffrey Nissen of Stanwood, Washington, was found pinned under the Tesla and pronounced dead at the scene.
The accident marks at least the second fatality in the United States linked to Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) previously reported one fatality and 75 crashes occurred while the system was in use, but it was unclear whether the system was the direct cause of the previous fatality.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently reiterated his vision for a fleet of robot taxis, saying that “full self-driving” vehicles should be able to operate without human supervision by the end of this year. However, he acknowledged that his predictions on the subject have been “too optimistic in the past.” He also expressed confidence that government regulators will not be a limiting factor in the adoption of robot taxis, saying, “In the future, if unsupervised FSD has been proven safer than humans over billions of miles, what regulator is going to stop it?”
It’s important to note that despite the names “Full Self-Driving” and “Autopilot,” Tesla maintains that neither system can currently drive autonomously, and that a human driver must be ready to take control at any time. The company is currently testing “Full Self-Driving” on public roads with select Tesla owners, and is currently calling this “FSD Monitoring.”
Experts in the field, such as Carnegie Mellon University professor Phil Koopman, are skeptical that fully autonomous robotaxis will be introduced in the near future. Professor Koopman emphasizes that data is needed to prove that driver supervision is not required before claiming an acceptable level of safety: “Without data showing that drivers do not need to supervise the automation, there is no basis to claim that robotaxis are acceptably safe,” he says.
Tesla has been pushing self-driving cars as a growth catalyst since it introduced its “full self-driving” hardware in late 2015, and many investors have backed the company because of the long-term prospects for robotics technology. Musk has announced plans to unveil a dedicated robotaxi fleet at an event on Oct. 10, but the event was postponed from Aug. 8 to allow for changes to the vehicle.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click here for details AP news here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship.
