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New report: Tesla sped up moments before fatal 101 crash

Original post made on Jun 7, 2018

An early report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Thursday reveals that the Tesla Model X involved in a fatal crash on Highway 101 earlier this year sped up just before it collided with a traffic barrier.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Thursday, June 7, 2018, 10:59 AM

Comments (7)

Posted by Robyn
a resident of another community
on Jun 7, 2018 at 2:39 pm

It sounds like self-serving statements by Tesla.
Why did the battery ignite, twice?
If the crash did not kill the driver, the fire would.


Posted by William Hitchens
a resident of Waverly Park
on Jun 7, 2018 at 3:10 pm

William Hitchens is a registered user.

The driver wasn't touching the steering wheel for 6 seconds before the crash. Did he touch any other controls, like the accelerator, the brake, or the speed control? As for Elon Musk, he seems to have a very disturbing habit of acting fast and loose with the truth.


Posted by An Engineer
a resident of another community
on Jun 7, 2018 at 3:14 pm

It would seem the lane keeping function went awry, perhaps confused by road markings or something unanticipated on or beside the roadway. Hopefully Tesla and the NHTSA ran an identical vehicle along the same path while making detailed recordings of the Tesla's instrument readouts and data processing responses. What fooled the robot into driving itself into the median barrier, and can it happen again?


Posted by TeslaKoolaid
a resident of Cuesta Park
on Jun 7, 2018 at 9:53 pm

I think Elon suffers from a pattern of overconfidence in himself and his self perceived superior judgement. I work in corporate PR. It is unfathomable to me that Tesla would go on the offensive with the callous statements they released about the crash, knowing the victim died. I applaud the NTSB for excluding them from the investigation. Everyone that owns a tesla (including most of my neighbors), you may want to rethink that decision. It's not another expensive status symbol i.e. pair of 7 of all mankind designer jeans. It's a car. And it could kill you.


Posted by Kling-Kling Bird
a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood
on Jun 9, 2018 at 11:58 am

Kling-Kling Bird is a registered user.

This story omits an important point made in the NTSB report:

"As the vehicle approached the [101/85] interchange, it was traveling in the second lane from the left, which was a high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV)
lane for continued travel on US-101."

That is the wrong lane to be in for anyone planning to exit to Highway 85 in the next few seconds.

The report also includes a timeline which, with the following supplemental
information, may help anyone who cares to form a clearer picture of what
might have happened on March 23.

As a car southbound on 101 passes underneath the Shoreline Boulevard overcrossing, the pavement surface becomes a hodgepodge of asphalt and cement of contrasting shades. The lane markings are halfway between the seams. The stripes between the left exit lane and the 101 fast lane
go from dotted to solid and are badly worn. It takes three seconds at freeway speeds to get from the beginning of the segment to the gore point.
It takes another six seconds to get from the gore point to the barrier
where the crash occurred. Nobody is supposed to cross either the solid
stripe or the gore to make a last-second lane change. During commute hours,
anywhere from one to three vehicles do it anyway.

The Model X owner's manual has a 25-page section on its driver assist features. Those 25 pages include 70 warnings about situations where those
features might not work. The first warning on page 89 and the first "Limitation" on page 95 are particularly relevant to the accident site.


Posted by Kling-Kling Bird
a resident of Another Mountain View Neighborhood
on Jun 9, 2018 at 12:07 pm

Kling-Kling Bird is a registered user.

Correction to last sentence of next-to-last paragraph of previous post:

During commute hours, anywhere from one to three vehicles per minute do it anyway.


Posted by Jurasic Park
a resident of Sylvan Park
on Jun 9, 2018 at 9:10 pm

Jurasic Park is a registered user.

I saw on cable tv a panel discussion on weapons being developed - including tiny drones- that will decide whom and what to attack. Has humankind learned nothing from science fiction movies? Science fiction can become science future. And it ain't all good.


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