'100% Sure' Police Were Almost Certainly Wrong That Tesla Crash Had No One Behind the Wheel

In April, a Tesla Model S ran a curb and crashed into a tree in a Houston suburb, bursting into flames and killing both men inside. At the time, the crash received widespread media coverage, including from Motherboard, because police told a local news station “no one was driving the car.” They backed this up later, adding they were “100 percent sure” of this. The assertion raised additional safety concerns regarding Tesla’s Autopilot and the way the company markets the service. 

But a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, strongly suggests the police were wrong. While cautioning the results are preliminary, the NTSB said the recovered data from the onboard computer says “both the driver and the passenger seats were occupied, and that the seat belts were buckled” at the time of the crash. The car was traveling at 67 miles per hour, despite being just 550 feet from the driveway on the cul-de-sac it began the trip from, and the acceleration pedal was being applied at a maximum of 98.8 percent force. Additionally, the steering wheel was deformed due to impact, further evidence someone was in the driver's seat at the time of the crash.

This is, of course, being hailed as vindication for Autopilot and Tesla by fans and supporters, as it neatly conforms to the broad Musk-induced narrative that the media is too critical of the company and quick to jump on narratives embarrassing to the company. More than one thing can be true at once—it is possible that the police were wrong in this instance, and it can also be true that Autopilot and Tesla's "full self-driving beta" have been rolled out recklessly before it's ready with misleading statements about its capabilities.

The development is also being used to further criticize the recently-appointed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety advisor Missy Cummings because she co-authored a paper that initially accepted the police’s narrative before issuing a correction to modify the language given the more uncertain language NTSB used in a May update on the case.

“All aspects of the crash, including Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system, the postcrash fire, occupant egress, and results of the driver’s toxicological tests, remain under investigation while the NTSB determines the probable cause,” the agency’s recent update said, “with the intent of issuing safety recommendations to prevent similar events in the future.”