Fatal Tesla crash highlights company's shaky history with safety investigators

Wednesday, 21 April 2021

Officials said Tesla is not party to a probe into a weekend Model S crash that killed two people - a departure from typical protocol and a potential sign of the auto company's strained relations with investigators.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman Keith Holloway said that Tuesday was investigators' first full day on the scene of the Houston-suburb crash, and that they were probing the vehicle's operation and the subsequent fire. He added that Tesla was 'working with' investigators 'but is not a party to the investigation.'

The NTSB booted Tesla as a party to its probe into another fatal crash in 2018 after the car manufacturer disclosed investigative information before the probe's conclusion.

Holloway referred questions on Tesla's involvement to the company, which has disbanded its public relations department. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla data 'so far' indicated that the car's Autopilot driver assistance system was not in use during the crash. Autopilot is a Tesla driver assistance system that can navigate from highway on-ramp to off-ramp, can detect stop lights and stop signs, and can self-park and summon the vehicle. Police previously said there was not anyone in the drivers' seat during the crash.

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According to Reuters, the Harris County Constable said it planned to serve search warrants to Tesla to secure data from the car that crashed. The Harris County Constable Precinct 4 did not return repeated messages requesting comment.

The police are ‘100 per cent’ certain no one was driving the Tesla that crashed in Texas. Elon Musk isn’t so sure.

Musk also tweeted Tuesday about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA), which has taken a more hands-off approach to safety regulation of the electric carmaker.

'NHTSA is great,' he wrote.

Investigators are probing how two men were killed Saturday when a Model S sedan veered off the road, leading to a fire that took hours to completely extinguish, according to police.

The NTSB said Monday that it was sending investigators to the site of the crash and subsequent fire, which burned for hours and required more than 30,000 gallons to extinguish.

'Our investigation has determined that one of the victims was in the front passenger seat; one was in the back seat,' Mark Herman, a constable for Harris County Precinct 4, told the station KHOU, adding that police were '100 per cent” certain that the driver's seat was unoccupied.

Tesla has said drivers should pay full attention while using the Autopilot feature.

In past investigations, officials have required Tesla's assistance to decode data from Tesla's proprietary onboard systems. That generally makes the automaker's cooperation critical to federal safety investigations.

Tesla was previously removed from an investigation into the death of 38-year-old Walter Huang, who was killed when his Model X SUV slammed into a highway barrier in California in 2018. The NTSB ultimately cited Autopilot system limitations, the driver's distraction from a cellphone game, and apparent overreliance on the Autopilot system, in the crash.

Before the investigation's conclusion, Tesla issued a preliminary explanation in a blog post, where it said that Autopilot was activated moments before the crash and that the car's cruise control distance was set to a minimum, meaning it would tail somewhat closely behind other cars.

'At this time the NTSB needs the assistance of Tesla to decode the data the vehicle recorded,' NTSB spokesman Chris O'Neil said at the time. 'In each of our investigations involving a Tesla vehicle, Tesla has been extremely cooperative on assisting with the vehicle data. However, the NTSB is unhappy with the release of investigative information by Tesla.'

In an NTSB investigation, party status is limited to 'those persons, Federal, state, or local government agencies and organisations whose employees, functions, activities, or products were involved in the accident and that can provide suitable qualified technical personnel to actively assist in an investigation,' according to federal regulations published online by Cornell University law school.

The parties, the regulations say 'must follow all directions and instructions from NTSB representatives.'

But the relationship is not guaranteed.

'Party status may be revoked or suspended if a party fails to comply with assigned duties and instructions, withholds information, or otherwise acts in a manner prejudicial or disruptive to an investigation,' it adds.