Tesla Motors told Commerce Committee staff of US Senate that it is pondering on two theories which may help to explain what led to the 7th May fatal crash that killed a Florida man who was using the “Autopilot” system of a car.
On Thursday, Staff members of Tesla Motors told congressional aides at an hour-long briefing that they were still trying to understand the system failure of car that led to the crash.
According to the source said that Tesla Motors is thinking whether the radar and camera input for the automatic emergency braking system of the vehicle failed to detect the truck trailer or the radar of automatic braking system may have detected the trailer but discounted this input as part of a design to tune out structures such as bridges to avoid triggering false braking.
Tesla denied to discuss the meeting except to say it did not suggest that the cameras or radar of vehicle caused the accident.
Joshua Brown was killed in the car accident when his Tesla’s Model S car drove under the tractor-trailer. It was the first known fatality involving a Model S operating on the Autopilot system The Autopilot system of Model S car of Tesla Motors takes control of steering and braking in certain conditions.
Elon Musk who is Tesla CEO was asked on Twitter why the radar of the vehicle did not detect the truck. Tesla CEO Musk wrote in a June 30 tweet that radar tunes out what looks like an overhead road sign to avoid false braking events.
In a June blog post, Tesla Motors said that neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky.
On Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board of USA said that according to initial investigation, the Model S was travelling at 119 km/hr in a 104 km/hr zone at the time it struck the tractor trailer near Williston, Florida.
According to the report said the NTSB confirmed the driver of Model S was using the advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping assistance at the time. Yet, the NTSB has not determined the probable cause of the crash.
Tesla faces a Friday deadline to answer the initial questions about the crash which is asked by the safety agency.
