The driver of a Tesla has been killed after the car they were driving slammed into the side of a fire truck which was blocking a California freeway.
The fire engine had been parked across the I-680 freeway in Walnut Creek, east of San Francisco, to deal with a separate accident when the Tesla Model S careered straight into the side, killing the driver just before 4am on Saturday morning.
A passenger onboard was taken to hospital following the crash, although their condition is unknown. The car needed to be cut open to remove the passenger.
The vehicle involved in the crash is the same model that is currently facing a mass recall.
Photos taken at the crash scene show the Tesla suffered significant damage and was completely crushed while the fire truck was severely damaged.
Several firefighters who were on scene at the time were also slightly injured.
California Highway Patrol Officer Adam Lane said it was not clear whether the driver may have been intoxicated or whether the Tesla Model S was operating with automation or driving assistance features.
If it turns out that the driver was utilizing the autopilot, which has already faced significant criticism, Tesla could face additional problems.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating Tesla’s automated driving system and how it responds to emergency vehicles on the road.
The recall is a result of reports of 14 similar crashes involving Teslas in recent months, many of which were attributed, in part, to the self-driving feature.
Tracie Dutter, assistant chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said the truck had its lights on and was parked diagonally on northbound lanes of the freeway to protect responders to an earlier accident that did not result in injuries.
Last week, Tesla announced that it would recall 363,000 of its vehicles, including the Model S, due to potential issues with their self-driving capabilities.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday that the Full Self-Driving Beta software allows the vehicle to ‘exceed speed limits’.
It is also claimed that the cars ‘travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner increases the risk of a crash.’
Tesla will release an over-the-air (OTA) software update, free of charge, and said they are not aware of any injuries or deaths relating to the recall.
CEO Elon Musk has hit out at the claims, responding to a post on Twitter saying: ‘The word ‘recall’ for an over-the-air software update is anachronistic and just flat wrong!’
In total 362,758 of the expensive vehicles are being recalled, affecting Tesla models dating back to 2016.
Documents from the NHTSA say Tesla is doing the recall but does not agree with an agency analysis of the problem.
The problem is expected to be rectified by the online software update in the coming weeks.
Tesla has recalled Full Self-Driving Beta in the past, but not since making the software widely available to drivers who purchase the option, which costs $15,000 per vehicle.
The company was forced to recall a version of Full Self-Driving in October 2021 after owners reported their cars were suddenly slamming on the brakes at highway speeds after one overnight update.
In 2022 they recalled more than 50,000 vehicles over concerns vehicles in Full Self-Driving had been equipped with a ‘rolling stop’ function that allowed them to proceed through intersections without halting at stop signs.
It comes days after Musk was accused of ‘dishonesty’ by Silicon Valley legend Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976.
He said he was deeply unimpressed by the South African-born billionaire’s inability to fulfill the promises he makes with Tesla.
A 2016 video that Tesla used to promote its self-driving technology was staged to show capabilities like stopping at a red light and accelerating at a green light that the system did not have, according to testimony by a senior engineer.
The testimony was part of a July deposition taken as evidence in a lawsuit against Tesla for a 2018 fatal crash involving a former Apple engineer.
Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box Wozniak said of the self-driving software: ‘It makes mistakes all the time. It’s a horrible, frightening experience.
‘My life has been based on total honesty. Everything you say is totally honest. You don’t hide things, you don’t describe things, you don’t make things up to make yourself seem better.
‘A lot of honesty disappears when you look at Elon Musk and Tesla.’
Wozniak, asked whether he thought Musk and Jobs were similar. He said they both were leaders of ‘a cult’ – which he felt was dangerous.
In 2019, Musk claimed that Teslas would turn into ‘robotaxis’ which were so advanced their owners ‘could go to sleep’ in the vehicle while it chauffeurs them around.
Ashok Elluswamy, director of Autopilot software at Tesla, said in the July transcript that Musk ordered the 2016 video to promote self-driving, even though it was not ready.
The video carries a tagline saying: ‘The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.’
Elluswamy said Tesla’s Autopilot team set out to engineer and record a ‘demonstration of the system’s capabilities’ at the request of Musk.
SOURCE: dailymail.co.uk
