A 28-year-old motorcyclist tragically lost his life in Washington State last Friday when a Tesla driver crashed into him. The driver, a 56-year-old man from Snohomish, was using his 2022 Tesla Model S with its advanced driver assist system turned on. He admitted to the police that he was distracted by his phone and wasn’t paying attention to the road.
Sadly, the Tesla didn’t detect the motorcyclist and collided with him at high speed. The impact threw the motorcyclist off his bike, and he ended up pinned under the electric car until the police arrived.
The Tesla driver confessed that he had trusted the car to drive for him and only realized what happened when he heard the crash. Although he hadn’t been drinking excessively, he admitted to having an alcoholic drink before the accident occurred.
Reports suggest that the driver was using Tesla’s “Autopilot” feature, which is different from “Full Self-Driving.” While the latter requires the driver to keep their eyes on the road, Autopilot doesn’t seem to have this requirement. It’s essentially a system that helps keep the car in its lane and maintains a certain speed.
Tesla may argue that it’s not responsible for the crash, as they say, their Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features are meant to be used by a fully attentive driver who can take control if needed. However, Tesla and its CEO have been promoting the idea that their cars can “drive themselves,” which has misled some buyers. Sadly, this isn’t the first time a Tesla in “self-driving” mode has been involved in a fatal accident.
The Tesla driver, whose name hasn’t been released, has been charged with Vehicular Homicide and was taken into custody. He posted bail on Sunday.
A survey by Forbes shows that many Americans are concerned about the safety of self-driving cars, and a majority wouldn’t trust them. Yet, Tesla continues to test its software on public roads without giving people a chance to challenge it legally. Some Tesla drivers take risks with everyone’s safety because they believe they can, even though the system failed to detect a motorcyclist in this tragic incident.
