Tesla's Autopilot Was Blamed For Another Crash... But Now The Driver Has Owned Up

When you think you're handing control over to a machine, it's natural to blame the machine when things go wrong, as a Tesla Model S driver in Minnesota claimed - before backtracking and taking the blame
Tesla's Autopilot Was Blamed For Another Crash... But Now The Driver Has Owned Up

UPDATE: We’ve seen new press coverage from Jalopnik that quotes the driver in this story as owning up to using Autopilot when he shouldn’t have been.

An American driver is accusing his Tesla Model S of ‘suddenly accelerating’ when he engaged the autopilot mode.

David Clark, of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had four passengers on board when he claims that the car lurched forwards as he engaged the car’s self-driving mode. The story ends pretty quickly when the car left the road and flipped over into marshland. No major injuries have been reported.

The 58-year-old was approaching the intersection of 141st Street and 172nd Avenue in Irving Township. There are no road markings at that point on 141st Street, but it’s not clear which road Clark was travelling on at the time.

Image: Bing Maps
Image: Bing Maps

While Tesla has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of Joshua Brown, the man who repeatedly ignored warnings to retake control from his Model S before being killed in a high-speed impact with a lorry, claims of malfunctioning Autopilot systems will persist. We know from this video that it’s not quite perfect even if it can now detect a risk of accidents even before the car in front.

The description of this accident sounds a lot like what happens when your cruise control is set to a high speed when you re-engage it. The car accelerates away to try to get back up to speed. We’re curious to know what Tesla’s findings are when they examine the car’s logs.

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Comments

cjcronin

Isn’t autopilot only for use on motorways/freeways as it’s still in beta? Not sure that dirt road could be considered a motorway…

07/18/2017 - 10:42 |
27 | 0

I think you can use it anywhere, but if it thinks the conditions are too bad (snow for example) it’ll force the driver to take over. But I’m pretty sure a dirt road would qualify as “bad conditions” in Autopilot’s eyes.

07/18/2017 - 11:35 |
2 | 0
Evan H.

What if the autopilot did that on purpose to stop idiots like him from misusing it?

07/18/2017 - 11:04 |
4 | 0
Anonymous

Good

07/18/2017 - 11:11 |
0 | 4
TheMindGarage

Well, maybe he had Ludicrious mode on xD. It isn’t called that for nothing…

07/18/2017 - 11:35 |
5 | 0
Anonymous

How to crash a Tesla:
Step 1: Make sure it has Autopilot.
Step 2: Don’t use Autopilot.
Step 3: Crash Tesla.
Step 4: Blame Autopilot.

07/18/2017 - 11:41 |
83 | 0
TheMindGarage

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Tesla could probably check the vehicle logs.

Yet another reason why I dislike autonomous cars.

07/18/2017 - 11:49 |
18 | 4
SirJamjaxIsGoingAgain-PeaceOutChaps

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Then sue tesla for a trillion pounds

07/18/2017 - 13:27 |
2 | 0
InjunS2K

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Lies! Elon Musk did a successful test of his mind control weapon on the dude. Autopilot is a secret system built to accomplish the noble deed of killing Tesla owning normies who pull up to car meets bragging about how their Tesla could beat anyone’s car at a drag race while not knowing the difference between a roots supercharger and a turbocharger.

07/25/2017 - 02:00 |
1 | 0
ThatV70Guy

‘Hold my beer. No wait, I can’

07/18/2017 - 16:24 |
3 | 0
Mario LPS2

Nice try driver, nice try…

07/18/2017 - 17:36 |
3 | 0
vectormax12

Hey when I’m mad I blame Siri…..

07/18/2017 - 22:07 |
0 | 0
TheMindGarage

Because data sharing should be optional, not compulsory. If the car crashes, the driver is at fault for not paying attention

07/18/2017 - 22:52 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

[DELETED]

07/18/2017 - 22:56 |
0 | 2
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

[DELETED]

07/18/2017 - 23:03 |
0 | 0
TheMindGarage

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

[DELETED]

07/18/2017 - 23:04 |
0 | 0
TheMindGarage

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

[DELETED]

07/18/2017 - 23:04 |
0 | 0