Tesla logs show ‘Autopilot was engaged’ at the time of fatal Model X crash

A Tesla Model X accident occurred in the Mountain View, CA area last Friday, 23rd Mar — resulting in the death of the driver after being taken to the hospital. The Tesla vehicle also caught fire after hitting the concrete lane divider on the highway.

The crash also involved two other vehicles that slammed into the Model X. The accident was so severe that one of the safest SUVs in the world teared up in two halves till the passenger section.

Tesla claimed the severity of the accident was due to removal or reduction in size of the attenuator that helps reduce the crash impact in-case a vehicle hits the highway lane divider (picture below).

Some of the videos of the crash scene were captured by media outlets and citizens you can find at the end of this post to understand the severity of the crash.

As this was the first major Tesla accident catching fire in the area — the fire department was not sure of an appropriate response to the incident — two Tesla engineers reached the destination in order to help clearing up the situation.

The latest update regarding the accident is that Tesla was able to get the data logs of the crashed Model X — the information fetched from the vehicle’s on-board computer shows that ‘Autopilot‘ was engaged at the time of the accident.

The reports further tell that the driver had his hands lifted-off the steering wheel for six seconds prior to the crash which according to Tesla is sufficient time to respond to such a situation.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in collaboration with Tesla are investigating the accident and are working towards the issues of post-crash fire response and safe removal of the vehicle from the accident scene.

Tesla released a blog-post yesterday sharing the grief with the affected family and the latest information that they have regarding the incident.

Some of the crash site videos and mainstream media news videos you can watch below.

This is the second Autopilot/Self-Driving fatal accident — the other one occurred in Tempe, Arizona involving an Uber self-driving Volvo XC90.

Share your thoughts about Autopilot/Self-Driving car safety int he comments section below.