Tesla Motors released a statement on June 30 after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into a fatal crash involving a Model S being driven by the car’s autopilot. Former Navy SEAL Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio, was killed on May 7 in Florida when the autopilot failed to distinguish between a white tractor-trailer crossing the highway and the bright sky. Brown had published a video around one month before the fatal crash where he credited his “Tessy’s” autopilot for averting a collision. The video went viral on YouTube attracting over 1.7 million views and was tweeted by Tesla founder Elon Musk. “Hands down the best car I have ever owned and use it to its full extent. It has done many, many amazing things, but this was one of the more interesting things caught on the dashcam,” Brown wrote in a comment on the YouTube video published on April 5. The Associated Press interviewed the driver of the tractor-trailer involved in the May 7 crash, who said a movie was playing in the car following the crash. Bronson, Florida-based newspaper The Levy Journal reported the top of the Telsa was torn off in the crash on US 27A. This video shows the April 5 near miss captured on Brown’s dashboard camera. Credit: YouTube/Joshua Brown

US OH: Tesla Driver Killed in Autopilot Crash Had Filmed Previous Near Miss April 05

IT WAS always going to happen, the question was how would the world react?

It was announced early this morning that a Tesla Model S has been involved in a fatal crash during which the autopilot mode of the vehicle was activated.

The accident occurred on a highway in northern Florida when a tractor trailer drove perpendicular across the highway crashing into the Tesla car which was driving itself.

Tesla, which said the driver was ultimately responsible for the vehicle’s action even when in autopilot mode, said both the driver and the car failed to notice the tractor trailer “against a brightly lit sky” and the brakes failed to kick in.

In a company blog post detailing the accident, Tesla said the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) had been informed of the accident and had been conducting an investigation into the crash.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted the blog post offering his “condolences for the tragic loss.”

Our condolences for the tragic loss https://t.co/zI2100zEGL — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 30, 2016

The driver of the Tesla was a 40-year-old Joshua Brown, the owner of a technology company who nicknamed his vehicle “Tessy” and had praised its sophisticated “autopilot” system just one month earlier for preventing a collision on an interstate.

While details about the accident was only recently reported, it took place on May 7.

The cameras on Mr Brown’s car had failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor trailer from a brightly lit sky and didn’t automatically activate its brakes, according to a government report obtained by the Associated Press.

Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the truck said the Tesla driver was “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen” at the time of the crash and driving so quickly that “he went so fast through my trailer I didn’t see him.”

“It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road,” he said.

Tesla Motors Inc. said it is not possible to watch videos on the Model S touch screen and Mr Baressi acknowledged he couldn’t see the movie, he only heard it playing.

Tesla statement on 1st death from a self-driving car is remarkable. Repeatedly says, more or less, "Well, human drivers are less safe." — Danny Yadron (@dannyyadron) June 30, 2016

Mr Brown was incredibly enthusiastic about his 2015 Tesla Model S and in April credited its sophisticated autopilot system for avoiding a crash when a commercial truck swerved into his lane on an interstate.

He published a video of the incident online. “Hands down the best car I have ever owned and use it to its full extent,” Mr Brown wrote.

Tesla didn’t identify Mr Brown but described him in the statement as “a friend to Tesla and the broader EV (electric vehicle) community, a person who spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly in Tesla’s mission.”

Mr Musk’s company also stressed in the blog post that there still remains some uncertainty about its new system, pointing out that drivers must manually enable it.

“Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert,” the company said.

— With AP