Crash of Tesla driven by Tesla employee?

[Ollie Jones]

I was using my Model S to pick somebody up at Logan Airport in Boston yesterday (10-July-2017).

A MA state trooper came up to me while I was loading luggage into the trunk. He asked me if I ever use autopilot, and I said yes. He then told me a Tesla crashed recently somewhere on US Route 3. He said the circumstances were this:

1. Two Tesla employees were driving separate cars and using autopilot.
2. One of them smashed into a signboard (one of those electrified stationary roadside objects that says "Use Yah Blinkah" and so forth) while on autopilot.
3. The car was a total loss, and the driver was OK.

Is this true? Or are MA staties spreading rumors and FUD about stuff they don't understand?

 

[ecarfan]

Did you do a Google search? That is always a good place to start looking for information.

I searched Google for this phrase: "tesla crash us route 3 2017".

I did not find anything that matched what that MA state trooper described to you. That does not mean his story is not true.

 

[BrettS]

There have been a number of cases where autopilot has driven cars into things in construction zones primarily because of the lines on the road. Autopilot lives and dies by the lines on the road and it is common in construction zones for the lines to be confusing as the traffic patterns get changed and redirected around the construction. If the road lines are not removed (or not removed well) then autopilot will continue driving the car forward into things following the lane lines. I have seen reports where cars have hit construction cones and pilons and there was a YouTube video where a car drove into a concrete barrier.

I could certainly imagine a case where a lane might have been closed and there was a signboard with a big arrow in the lane behind construction cones directing traffic to merge into another lane. If this was a temporary lane closure then the lane lines would not have been changed and if the driver was not paying attention then autopilot would continue straight in it’s lane. I would kind of hope that the signboard would have enough metal in it that the radar would detect it and slow or stop the car, but it’s possible that this did not happen.

In any case, whether it was a real accident or not, the takeaway is that autopilot does not give you the license to stop paying attention. You need to be aware of where the car is and what is ahead of you when autopilot is engaged. All of the autopilot accidents that i have seen discussed here could have been prevented if the driver had been paying more attention and disengaged autopilot when things started to go wrong.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

In your Google search, it's important to note that no local media entity would call it "US Route 3".

Around here, "route 3" would suffice. That being said, I can't find anything on it. Maybe the trooper was speaking about something that hadn't been released to the general public?

 

[azred]

Maybe the trooper is short TSLA.