The NTSB has issued a recommendation as they continue to work on the final report for this accident. This is really Captain Obvious kind of stuff, about CalTrans not leaving crash attenuators... attenuated. The government may be slow, but in this case, appear to be moving in the right direction.
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I was pretty loud about my contention that Caltrans made the lanes in such a manner they direct traffic straight into the death points in the first place. The original design of the intersection was to naturally gradually move people straight into the new lane and overpass without any confusion, swerving, or other insane driving styles. Before the crash, Caltrans came back and repainted everything to direct the traffic in the lane which is destined to go over the freeway to first go straight toward and very nearly into the death point, but then splattered some paint on the road indicating drivers have to swerve at the last fraction of a second to get into the overpass without dying into the death point. It's totally stupid swervy lane-making that Caltrans started doing in LA decades ago and now has brought up here to North California. I ignored their deadly lane markings, and drove straight into the overpass, except that I was aware of their criminal lane markings.
Since then, Caltrans probably read what I said, and wanted to make no possibility of confusion, so has permanently moved the physical freeway median barriers on the left to FORCE people into the lane that leads straight into the death point, with the abrupt swerving PHYSICALLY NECESSARY to pass over 101 onto 85 at that point, not just splattered in lane markings as had caused the autopilot (and many other drivers) into the crash.
The main fault was always Caltrans, always has been for nearly every crash into that death point, and still is, now, with their new alignment. Gradual lane merging and separation is the right safe way to do freeways, and Caltrans has been on a mission to erase that proper methodology, and it is criminal of them to do so.
Anyway, if they're fixing their band-aid measure of that "crash attenuator", then that is better than not doing so, so there's that.
To whatever extent the Model X was responsible for murdering the Apple employee, that is the fault of Tesla and the driver of that Model X, but I must point out that Caltrans aligned the lane markings in such a way that that was and presumably still is a frequent outcome regardless of driver ability. I myself have caught myself following other cars in that lane before Caltrans moved the medians but after Caltrans moved the paint, looked in my mirrors as I'm supposed to do, and when I looked forward, found myself hurtling straight toward that very death point with no cars in front of me, in only a fraction of a second. That lane alignment is murder. Of course, I swerved as necessary to not die. Presumably, Tesla is responsible for not properly making such an emergency swerve, and I myself have almost been killed by Tesla AP trying to swerve me INTO death TWICE before I sold my Model S, so it's Tesla's fault for not telling people to not use AP as much at that time when Tesla was not able to swerve properly.
There's no doubt in my mind that criminal Caltrans and false advertising and instruction Tesla were both contributing causes of the accident, primarily Caltrans, and secondarily Tesla and the driver of the Model X.
