Tesla Vehicle On Auto-Pilot Slams Into Highway Barrier Killing Driver: NTSB

The NTSB has released its report analyzing the March 23 Tesla Model X crash in Mountain View. The accident ended in the tragic death of a 38-year-old Apple engineer and took place while Autopilot was engaged. Furthermore, the collision took place while the driver had their hands off of the steering wheel. While many of the details were known previously, the most surprising revelation was that the vehicle actually sped up seconds before the crash.

As Bloomberg reports, the Model X that crashed in California while being guided by its semi-autonomous driving system, accelerated to 71 miles an hour in the seconds before the vehicle slammed into a highway barrier, according to the NTSB investigators. In the preliminary report on the March 23 crash, investigators disclosed that the driver’s hands were detected on the steering wheel only 34 seconds during the last minute before impact.

The investigation is the latest to shine a spotlight onto potential flaws in emerging autonomous driving technology.

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