Death on Autopilot: California Crash Victim's Tesla Drove Itself Into Barrier

Buried in the hubbub surrounding this week’s New York auto show was a drama unfolding in the wake of a Tesla Model X crash on US-101 in Mountain View, California, not far from Tesla’s Palo Alto HQ.

The SUV, driven by 38-year-old Apple software engineer Wei Huang, collided head-on with a concrete divider where the southbound freeway splits at the Highway 85 junction. The collision obliterated the SUV to the A-pillars and sparked a fire. Huang later died in hospital.

Crashes occur for a myriad of reasons and Teslas aren’t immune to reckless drivers, medical emergencies, and any number of other conditions that can lead to a crash. However, at the time of impact, Huang’s vehicle was operating on Autopilot, the company announced.

In an earlier blog post, Tesla said, “We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash.” The extreme damage done to the victim’s vehicle, Tesla said, was due to an earlier crash that crushed the concrete divider’s aluminum crash attenuator, thus rendering the safety feature useless. It provided a photo taken the day before the fatal March 23 crash, showing that the feature had not been repaired.

After retrieving the vehicle’s digital logs, the company announced on Friday that the Model X was driving with its semi-autonomous Autopilot system engaged. It’s the same system used by the driver of a fatal 2016 crash in Florida, though in the wake of that crash Tesla updated the system to prevent driver misuse. Now, the vehicle emits warnings to compel drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. After a certain number of unheeded warnings, the system stops the car before disengaging.

Before this update, some drivers viewed their Teslas as fully autonomous vehicles when in Autopilot mode. Videos abound of drivers reading books and performing other distracted activities as their Tesla sails merrily along.

In the Florida incident, neither the vehicle nor the driver noticed a brightly lit semi trailer crossing the highway in front of the Model S ( visible for 10 seconds, according to the National Transportation Safety Board), and the driver’s hands were not on the wheel at the time of impact.

In its most recent update on the Mountain View crash, Tesla wrote:

In the moments before the collision, which occurred at 9:27 a.m. on Friday, March 23rd, Autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum. The driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision. The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken.

Huang did not apply the brakes before the impact, nor did the vehicle’s automatic emergency braking system engage. Teslas operating on Autopilot use radar backed up by cameras to gauge the vehicle’s surroundings, and the end of a concrete barrier presents a slim cross-section for the system to identify. Still, it is a clear obstacle. What’s more puzzling, however, is how a vehicle driving in Autopilot mode got to where Huang’s Model X crashed.

It’s assumed, based on Tesla’s description of actions taken leading up to the crash, that Huang was travelling in the left lane of the 101 and was not attempting to exit onto the 85. To get to the point of impact, Huang’s car would have had to cross the painted line to the left of the vehicle. That line starts as a regular solid white marker, branching into two to split the “fast” lane from the exit lane as it approaches the barrier. If he intended to maintain his position in the left lane of the 101, Huang’s Model X would have had to drift over this line to impact the barrier.

Google Streeview images taken in late 2017 show the solid white line missing a lot of paint as it approaches the barrier and crash cushioning device (then in place). Whether this had anything to do with the crash is unknown.

A revealing tidbit of information comes from The Mercury News, which reports Huang made several complaints to Tesla about his vehicle’s Autopilot system. Huang’s family said he contacted the company on several occasions after his Model X veered off the road while Autopilot was engaged. Apparently, at least one of the incidents occurred on that same stretch of the 101.

These story elements have gone unaddressed by Tesla, which is reportedly in an all-out push to reach its Model 3 production target before the end of March. The automaker ended its most recent blog post by mentioning the lack of crash barrier at the impact site, then diving into Autopilot’s safety record.

Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have opened investigations into the Mountain View crash. We’ll keep you updated.

[Source: The New York Times] [Images: Tesla, KGO-TV]