Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, as well as the company’s AI lead Ashok Elluswamy, on Monday denied claims that the Full Self-Driving (FSD) system was responsible for a fatal crash in Texas that resulted in the death of a woman.
This Makes No Sense, Says Elon Musk
In a post on X, Musk responded to a post by a user who criticized a report that said a Tesla driver claimed to have engaged driver assistance technology as the Model 3 vehicle crashed into a home in Katy, Texas, on June 19, which resulted in the death of 76-year-old Martha Avila Mantilla.
“Yes, this makes no sense,” Musk said in his response, adding that the FSD system was designed to “slowly through neighborhood streets” and that this was “a high speed crash!”
Ashok Elluswamy Weighs In
Elluswamy also weighed in on the incident, responding to Musk’s post. The Tesla AI lead said that the driver “manually overrode” the self-driving system by “pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%” in the area. Elluswamy also said that the vehicle reached a speed of 73 mph before the crash.
He also criticized the “blatantly irresponsible reporting,” reaffirming that the FSD system was “safer than manual driving.” Elluswamy then said that such reports about the technology could prevent people from using systems that could make them safer on the road.
NHTSA Probes Tesla Crash
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Monday that it would be probing the incident, according to a report by CNBC.
The driver, identified as 44-year-old Harris Butler, claimed that the Tesla Model 3 was operating on the Autopilot system at the time of the crash. The driver wasn’t under the influence at the time of the incident, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Notably, NHTSA is already probing over 3.2 million vehicles over the FSD tech. The probe recently moved its investigation to Engineering Analysis, a stage that usually precedes a recall, according to the law.
NHTSA has also closed the investigation into the Actually Smart Summon feature, which could have affected over 2.59 million Tesla vehicles. The Actually Smart Summon feature was also recently teased on the Cybertruck.
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Photo courtesy: Frederic Legrand – COMEO from Shutterstock
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