Tesla CEO Elon Musk says autopilot was not enabled in fatal Texas crash

On Monday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted a denial that his company’s automated driving systems were involved in a fatal crash in Spring, Texas.

Two federal agencies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, are investigating the crash now.

Local police said in multiple press interviews that, apparently, nobody was behind the wheel of the 2019 Tesla Model S when it veered off the road, hit a tree and burst into flames, according to their preliminary investigations.

Musk wrote in his tweet on Monday: “Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD. Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have.”

Tesla sells its automated driving systems under the brand monikers Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, or FSD. It also releases a “beta” version of FSD software to some customers who have the premium FSD option, which costs $10,000.

Tesla Autopilot and FSD are not capable of controlling the electric vehicles in all normal driving circumstances, and the company’s owner’s manuals caution drivers to only use them with “active supervision.”

Autopilot, which is now standard in Tesla vehicles, does not always perfectly identify lane markers — for example, it can confuse sealed cracks in the road or bike lanes with other lane markers.

The system can also be misused or abused by drivers. A teen driver recently demonstrated in a stunt video he shared on social media that he could leave the driver’s seat with his Tesla’s Autopilot system remaining in use.

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[weareorigin]

There's millions of car crashes world wide, caused by humans driving. I don't see humans complaining and then stopping all human drivers.

[Mellowyellow]

false.. the fire chief put out a statement saying that they put out the fire in a few mins of getting there.. they just kept watering it just in case.. standard procedure...

[TwitterandyouTube]

CNBC owes Tesla an apology for the shameful way they portrayed yesterday's events. They couldn't wait to play judge, jury, and executioner.

[carloalaimo]

There has been a correction. The fire was killed in 2 or 3 minutes.

[acevelasquez]

***THE FIRE CHIEF SAID IT ONLY TOOK 2-3 MINUTES TO PUT THE FIRE OUT!!

[jazzjackson]

Did not take “a long time” to put out fire.

Words of the TX Fire Chief (Palmer Buck) that was on the scene:

“With respect to the fire fight, unfortunately, those rumors grew way out of control. It did not take us four hours to put out the blaze. Our guys got there and put down the fire within two to three minutes, enough to see the vehicle had occupants. After that, it was simply cooling the car as the batteries continued to have a chain reaction due to damage.
“We could not tear it apart or move it around to get ‘final extinguishment’ because the fact that we had two bodies in there and it was then an investigation-slash-crime scene. We had to keep it cool, were on scene for four hours, but we were simply pouring a little bit of water on it. It was not because flames were coming out. It was a reaction in the battery pan. It was not an active fire, ” Buck said.”

[g.elliott]

Possible impaired driver fled the scene

[stickersaddhp]

IT TOOK LESS THAN 5 MIN TO PUT OUT THE #FIRE. 🔥🔥🚒

[wilshire]

Are they going to give a toxicology report on the victims? I have a feeling drugs and/or alcohol was involved

[alksjda]

LOL people trying to blame tesla because they want them to fail.
i bet the family will try and sue if AP was enable and at the courthouse tesla will show them the terms and conditions, end of case.

[thesure]

"No one was driving in Tesla crash that killed two men in Texas"
-cnbc 4/19/21 (yesterday)
want to add -alleged?

[dankuo]

Sensational journalism owe their allegiance not to facts but to their advertisement income from the likes of oil, insurance and auto companies that are being disrupted by TSLA

[nedshort]

The media should be doing research instead of reporting on speculations and making things up.

[AR-evqm]

This is bad journalism jumping to the conclusion before the facts are out!

[thesure]

Recycled from cnbc's earlier coverage they added ominous music.

cn-bc, .... your a-gen-da is showing

[ricinro]

Assuming there were only two folks in the vehicle, the driver must have been in the seat with the seatbelt on to activate autosteer and cruisecontrol. Had the driver intended to bypass the safety controls by attaching the seatbelt and sitting on it then he would need to turn on autosteer but without lines on the road it wouldn't activate. So it is unlikely that the car was driving itself.
A hypothesis could be that he took the turn too fast and hit a tree. The driver unfastened his seatbelt and crawled into the back seat because his door was jammed and the car was on fire. He didn't survive.
I am not sure how data can survive the fire unless data was transmitted OTA or memory is stored in some area protected from fire. However the seatbelt would be unfastened if the driver left the front seat after the accident.
Let the authorities and Tesla figure it out and then report the findings with the same zeal as the initial unfounded reports and critiques.

[MADMAX]

Media is sad hearing from Elon that they're not to blame

[jboy]

Nobody in the driver seat? And Autopilot was not on? Common sense says this doesn't add up. How does the car maintain its speed?

[nakulnarotham]

So who's fault is it? The car/company or the driver not driving the car. Let's apply the gun control logic on this one.

[rodrivas]

This is garbage news!!( Fatal) accident come on do you research no fatalities!