Another Tesla driver has crashed while (maybe) using Autopilot

8 years, 5 months ago - 7 July 2016, Autoblog
Another Tesla driver has crashed while (maybe) using Autopilot
A second crash potentially involving Tesla's Autopilot system occurred last week, but this time, there's no sign of what (if anything) went wrong.

Metro Detroit art gallery owner Albert Scaglione said he and his son-in-law Tim Yanke were riding down the Pennsylvania Turnpike with their 2016 Tesla Model X's Autopilot activated when the crash occurred. The pair were 107 miles east of Pittsburgh last week when the crossover hit the guard rail "off the right side of the roadway. It then crossed over the eastbound lanes and hit the concrete median," according to the police report filed by Pennsylvania State Police trooper Dale Vukovich and obtained by The Detroit Free Press. Both Scaglione and Yanke walked away from the crash. Vukovich told the Freep that he'll likely issue Scaglione a ticket once he wraps up his investigation, but the trooper would not discuss any charges.

Tesla, though, says that it doesn't look like Scaglione was using Autopilot when the X crashed. The automaker sent Electrek a statement that said:

"We have no data to suggest that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the incident. Anytime there is a significant accident, Tesla receives a crash detection alert. As is our practice with all collisions, we immediately reached out to the customer to make sure he was safe. Until the customer responds, we are unable to further investigate."

The conditions in Scaglione's accident sounds a lot different than the fatal accident involving Model S owner Joshua Brown. Brown, the first fatality in an autonomous vehicle, was on a straight freeway when his Autopilot system got confused by a bright Florida sky and the side of a white tractor-trailer. Scaglione's Model X was on the notoriously tight Penn Turnpike with guardrails on one side and concrete median on the other – there was no crossing traffic for it to get confused by. That said, the cause of Brown's May crash only came to light last week – we'd expect a similar wait for an explanation behind Scaglione's crash.