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Man killed while self-driving car was on autopilot

It is the first known death caused by a self-driving car.

THE FIRST KNOWN death caused by a self-driving car has been announced by Tesla Motors.

Joshua D Brown (40), of Canton, Ohio, died in the accident on 7 May in Williston, Florida, when his car’s cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor/trailer from a brightly-lit sky. The car didn’t automatically activate its brakes, according to government records obtained yesterday.

Brown, the owner of a technology company, nicknamed his vehicle Tessy and had praised its sophisticated autopilot system just one month earlier for preventing a collision. The government said it is investigating the design and performance of the system aboard the Tesla Model S sedan.

Frank Baressi (62), the driver of the truck, said the Tesla driver was “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen” at the time of the crash and driving so quickly that “he went so fast through my trailer I didn’t see him”.

3dc450aa24e44b79b23d71379ca72566 Frank Baressi

“It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road,” Baressi told The Associated Press in an interview from his home in Palm Harbor, Florida. He acknowledged he couldn’t see the movie, only heard it.

Tesla Motors Inc said it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touch screen. There was no reference to the movie in initial police reports.

Brown’s published obituary described him as a member of the Navy Seals for 11 years and founder of Nexu Innovations Inc, which developed wireless internet networks and camera systems. In Washington, the Pentagon confirmed Brown’s work with the Seals and said he left the service in 2008.

Brown credited his car’s sophisticated autopilot system for avoiding a crash when a commercial truck swerved into his lane in April. He published a video of the incident online. “Hands down the best car I have ever owned and use it to its full extent,” Brown wrote.

Elon Musk

Tesla didn’t identify Brown but described him in a statement as “a friend to Tesla and the broader EV (electric vehicle) community, a person who spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Tesla’s mission”.

It also stressed the uncertainty about its new system, noting that drivers must manually enable it:

Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert.

Tesla founder Elon Musk expressed his condolences on Twitter.

Preliminary reports indicate the crash occurred when Baressi’s rig turned left in front of Brown’s Tesla at an intersection of a divided highway where there was no traffic light, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. Brown died at the scene of the crash, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

By the time firefighters arrived, the wreckage of the Tesla — with its roof sheared off completely — had come to rest in a nearby yard hundreds of feet from the crash site, assistant chief Danny Wallace of the Williston Fire Department told The Associated Press. The driver was pronounced dead, Signal 7 in the local firefighters’ jargon, and they respectfully covered the wreckage and waited for crash investigators to arrive.

Driver oversight 

The company said this was the first known death in over 130 million miles of autopilot operation. It said the NHTSA investigation is a preliminary inquiry to determine whether the system worked as expected.

Tesla said, before autopilot can be used, drivers have to acknowledge the system is an “assist feature” that requires a driver to keep both hands on the wheel at all times. Drivers are told they need to “maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle” while using the system, and they have to be prepared to take over at any time, the statement said.

0981d850dd424845a86a7bcc85cef8de File photo of the Model S AP AP

Autopilot makes frequent checks, making sure the driver’s hands are on the wheel, and it gives visual and audible alerts if hands aren’t detected, and it gradually slows the car until a driver responds, the statement said.

The autopilot mode allows the Model S sedan and Model X SUV to steer itself within a lane, change lanes and speed up or slow down based on surrounding traffic or the driver’s set speed. It can automatically apply brakes and slow the vehicle. It can also scan for parking spaces and parallel park on command.

Tesla conceded that the autopilot feature is not perfect, but said in the statement that it’s getting better all the time.

When used in conjunction with driver oversight, the data is unequivocal that autopilot reduces driver workload and results in a statistically significant improvement in safety.

NHTSA’s Office of Defects is handling the investigation. The opening of the preliminary evaluation shouldn’t be construed as a finding that the government believes the Model S is defective, NHTSA said in a statement.

Cameras 

The technology relies on multiple cameras, radar, laser and computers to sense objects and determine if they are in the car’s way, Mike Harley, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book said. Systems like Tesla’s, which rely heavily on cameras, “aren’t sophisticated enough to overcome blindness from bright or low contrast light,” he said.

Harley called the death unfortunate, but said that more deaths can be expected as the autonomous technology is refined.

Shares of Tesla Motors Inc fell $6.77 (about €6.10), or 3.2% in after-hours trading after news of the crash was released. During the trading day, the stock was up 1% at $212.28 (about €191).

Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said the accident is a huge blow to Tesla’s reputation.

They have been touting their safety and they have been touting their advanced technology. This situation flies in the face of both.

Brauer said Tesla will have to repair the damage in two ways. First, the company needs to make sure its customers understand that autopilot is meant to assist drivers, not to fully take over for them.

Second, he said the company should update the cars’ software so autopilot will turn off if it senses the driver’s hands aren’t on the wheel for a certain period of time. Mercedes-Benz’s driver assist system is among those that require drivers’ hands to be on the wheel.

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42 Comments
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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:32 AM

    One death in millions of miles of driving sounds good to me. Strange how every article I read about this frames it as how “unsafe” these vehicles are yet the actual data (that people don’t bother about anymore) says the exact opposite. If Musk is to pull off his electric car dream he doesn’t just have to achieve remarkable feats of engineering, he also has to overcome the media who are in the pockets of the big energy companies and politicians.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:36 AM

    Much safer than of those car were being driven by people. I hope the rare but inevitable accidents don’t slow down the development of this technology

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:37 AM

    Exactly, I remember hearing an example of a town in the US where they set a legal limit on the height of buildings due to automobile industry lobbying.

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    Mute Paddy Byrne
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:39 AM

    One death in infinity amount of miles is too much. Peoples safety should always be number one. There chould have been a whole family in that car with kids. All die because of a fault. But according to you this satistic sounds good to you.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:53 AM

    What on earth are you taking about Paddy?
    I’m saying that, even in these early stages, autonomous cars are obviously much safer than people driving.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:08 AM

    Paddy there was nothing stopping the man from intervening, in fact it is explicitly stated that they should. He obviously didn’t see the truck either. Just a tragic accident.

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    Mute Alfonso Armenta
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:19 AM

    Tweety doesn’t understand statistics

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    Mute Rand Al Thor
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    Jul 1st 2016, 10:27 AM

    While there are cars on the roads their will be accidents and with our driving habits and accident stats they can’t mass produce these cars quickly enough,would get our death toll on the roads down to low double figures and who wouldn’t want that?

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    Mute David Hynes
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:31 AM

    My Volvo has adaptive curse control and lane assist, I still don’t trust it 100% and would never will do so as sometimes heavy rain interrupts it. Tesla use images via a camera to define where the car is on the road, if they had a radar system combined with cameras then this exact example wouldn’t have happened, but heavy rain will always be a problem for these systems

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:34 AM

    Your car stops you from cursing? Censored by a Swede!!!!

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    Mute David Hynes
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:37 AM

    Well know fact that Volvo hates bad language being used by drivers

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    Mute UndieGrundy
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:51 AM

    Automation is a positive development and will eventually allow all kinds of people to have transport that wouldn’t otherwise. But it’s another generation off realistically. In all, the day to day world hasn’t changed that much since the 80′s really – apart from internet, computers and smartphones of course.

    I think there were far bigger changes and advancement between the 1950′s and 1980′s than there were between the 1980′s and 2016.

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    Mute Alfonso Armenta
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:17 AM

    They have a radar system but it tunes out what looks like overhead road signs, and in this case the trailer looked like one.

    Sorry to say but the driver wasn’t even looking at the road, drove straight into it.

    Maybe when 99% of the cars are self-driving then we can take our hands off the wheel… Until then, forget it.

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    Mute Trisha Tully
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:59 AM

    It was obviously a typo error Dave. He meant course.

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    Mute Max Power
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:39 AM

    Let’s rise against the machines before it’s too late.

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    Mute Ryan Hardy
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    Jul 1st 2016, 11:59 AM

    Just smashed up the microwave in my work canteen!!!!!!!

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    Mute Max Power
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    Jul 1st 2016, 1:12 PM

    We need to start a following. Call Joe Carroll

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    Mute F.O.R.A.
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:24 AM

    And so it begins..

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:39 AM

    In fairness the first death in 130 million miles is a much better safety record than human drivers.

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    Mute UndieGrundy
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:47 AM

    Wonder how it would cope at 2am on a summers night, heading home along quiet country back roads, only to be met by a tractor towing a trailer with spikes on it that stick 2 feet out onto your side of the road.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:52 AM

    The problem with these tests and the amount of miles is that the majority of them have been clocked up on closed testing areas with controlled environments. It seems that, when introduced into the uncontrolled environment that is daily life, their safety becomes more questionable.

    Of course it’s still too early to jump to conclusions as to whether the technology actually is safe or not for practical use.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Jul 5th 2016, 9:47 AM

    Undie, what planet are you living on where there’s tractors out at 2am?

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    Mute Pádraig Ó Raghaill
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:21 AM

    Bit of a blow for Tesla – “Harley called the death unfortunate, but said that more deaths can be expected as the autonomous technology is refined” “Unfortunate” bur expect more death, could he not have mellowed the tone a little :|

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    Mute Cian Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:07 AM

    If you read tesla’s statement it says that the truck turned left across the path of the car.the car couldn’t see the difference between yhe road and the white truck side and the sun was shining on it. The car nose went under the truck trailer while the windscreen hit the trailer and sheared off. If the truck had been a different colour, the sun at a different angle, or the car made contact with a different parts of the truck, he may still be alive. Just a series of unfortunate events.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:16 AM

    A series of unfortunate events? It was a fault in the design due to an inability to detect a large trailer approaching the front of the vehicle. If the vehicle was not automatically piloted by a system that could be easily blinded in such a way, this crash would not have happened.

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    Mute Alfonso Armenta
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:21 AM

    Humans *NEVER* get blinded by the sun, right?

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    Mute Dave O'Mahony
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:30 AM

    People were crashing & dying when GPS went mainstream because they relied on the technology more than common sense. I foresee Darwinism thinning the herd a bit more now as autopilot gains popularity.

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    Mute Cian Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:31 AM

    Let’s be clear. It was the fault of the driver. He’s require to maintain awareness and keep his hands on the wheel. Obviously he didn’t do that as neither he nor the system saw the danger. It’s a two step process, much sager than the way things currently are, and unfortunately both steps failed.

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    Mute Patrick Gough
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:27 AM

    This will put the driverless luas back by 3 weeks

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:50 AM

    I’ve got a Tesla model S…

    When they first turned on the autopilot it almost drove me into a closed lane a few times. It couldn’t recognize traffic cones. But it seems to be learning and getting better with every update.

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    Mute Cian Marnane
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:13 AM

    People are gone too lazy to sit into a car and drive it.. i give up!

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    Mute The Red Devil
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:34 AM

    Skynet will take over soon

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    Mute Ian Moloney
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:02 AM

    Lots of taxi drivers would do a couple of million miles in their career. I’m sure they wouldn’t like to end their days smashed up in an automated wreck

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    Mute Cian Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 10:11 AM

    In a few years taxi drivers won’t exist as a profession.

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    Mute Tom
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    Jul 1st 2016, 8:53 AM

    Tesla have contributed to this by the way they implemented the system to require little or no driver presence. Case in point all those guys who filmed themselves sitting in the back seat while being auto piloted. On the record they say you need to pay attention and monitor the autopilot. But off the record they enable people to use the system in an unsafe manner.

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    Mute The Guru
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:11 AM

    You’re right. Tesla should have an employee in the car with every single user when they’re driving to ensure they’re not using it in an unsafe manner…thankfully it’s only those pesky electric cars that people abuse.

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    Mute Alfonso Armenta
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:22 AM

    Exactly, Guru. And IKEA should send someone to everyone’s houses to make sure those damn MALM drawers don’t fall on children.

    Or maybe people should anchor them to their walls instead, like they say in the instructions :D (which reminds me, I must anchor mine).

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    Mute Dave O'Mahony
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    Jul 1st 2016, 10:18 AM

    First things first Tom, the person behind the wheel is the ONLY person responsible for how the car is driven. Tesla ‘contributed’ a feature (which is essentially still in Beta-Testing) that ASSISTS with driving (the same way a Sat-Nav assists with directing you where to go). The person behind the wheel is the one who can choose to use this feature as intended, rely entirely on it, or drive sensibly by themselves.
    Second point: Tesla don’t “enable people to use the system in an unsafe manner” but instead advise against doing ANYTHING unsafe while driving. No matter what, there will always be people who decide to act in an unsafe manner. They don’t even need to be driving at the time. If you think I’m wrong, then I recommend you google “planking deaths” or “necknomination”

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    Mute Cian Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 10:27 AM

    Maybe they should just make cars that are limited to 80km/ph and covered with bubble wrap.

    You own the car, you’re responsible for how you drive it. That’s why people do driving tests.

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    Mute Tom
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    Jul 1st 2016, 4:04 PM

    Dave, check your caps lock key. And I agree with Volvo on this, Tesla were reckless in introducing this feature, everyone knew it would be abused due to the way they implemented it. Labeling it as a Beta does not absolve them of anything, though you seem to think it does.

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    Mute Dave O'Mahony
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    Jul 2nd 2016, 11:48 AM

    Caps lock is working fine, thanks for your concern. Tesla didn’t tell this guy to ignore the road & watch a Harry Potter movie while speeding. Tesla are not to blame for their efforts in advancing technology. People are to blame for thinking that the technology has already reached perfection. My original point still stands: the person in the driver’s seat is the ONLY one responsible for how the car is driven (I emphasise the ‘only’ again because you still haven’t grasped the concept of people being responsible for their own actions)

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    Mute Alan Baldwin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:16 AM

    Battery power is the main problem in both cars and phones, wish they would put their efforts into fixing that first

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