Greg Gardner

Detroit Free Press

UPDATE: Tesla says no evidence Autopilot involved in Pa. crash

A Southfield art gallery owner told police his 2016 Tesla Model X was in Autopilot mode when it crashed and rolled over on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week. The crash came just one day after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a report on a fatal crash in May involving a Tesla that was in self-driving mode.

Albert Scaglione and his artist son-in-law, Tim Yanke, both survived Friday's crash near the Bedford exit, about 107 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The Free Press was not able to reach Scaglione, owner of Park West Gallery, or Yanke, but Dale Vukovich of the Pennsylvania State Police, who responded to the crash, said Scaglione told him that he had activated the Autopilot feature.

In his crash report, Vukovich stated that Scaglione's car was traveling east near mile marker 160, about 5 p.m. when it hit a guard rail "off the right side of the roadway. It then crossed over the eastbound lanes and hit the concrete median."

After that, the Tesla Model X rolled onto its roof and came to rest in the middle eastbound lane. A 2013 Infiniti G37 driven in the westbound lane by Thomas Hess of West Chester, Pa., was struck by debris from the Scaglione car, but neither he nor his passenger was hurt.

Vukovich said he likely will cite Scaglione after he completes his investigation, but he declined to specify the charge. Anyone who has driven on the Pennsylvania Turnpike knows that its narrow shoulders and concrete medians leave little margin for driver error. There's not enough evidence to indicate that Tesla's Autopilot malfunctioned.

Last Wednesday, NHTSA announced it is investigating the design and performance of the Autopilot system after a 40-year-old Canton, Ohio, man died May 7 in Florida when his 2015 Tesla Model S hit a tractor-trailer while in self-driving mode, The federal agency said both the driver and the Autopilot system failed to detect the large tractor-trailer making a left turn in front of him.

But the driver of the truck said there was a Harry Potter video still running when the Tesla came to a stop about a quarter-mile from the impact. Tesla says that before Autopilot can be used, drivers have to acknowledge that the system is an "assist feature" that requires a driver to keep both hands on the wheel at all times. Drivers are told they need to "maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle" while using the system, and they have to be prepared to take over at any time.

Later this month, NHTSA, which is authorized to set the safety rules for increasingly autonomous vehicles, will issue guidelines intended to set the near-term rules of the road in autonomous vehicle research.Autonomous vehicle advocates argue that over time they can make a quantum improvement in safety. But regulators must operate in the present.

Last month at a conference in Novi, NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind argued that technology like Autopilot should be twice as safe as the manual systems they replace.

The other risk illustrated in the Florida crash is the tension between what automakers call automated driver assist features, such as emergency braking, lane departure alert and adaptive cruise control, and a more daring level of autonomy that is touted as allowing occupants to text, e-mail, watch movies and otherwise disengage from driving.

Contact Greg Gardner: 313-222-8762 or ggardner@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregGardner12.