Tesla says Autopilot self-driving system engaged in fatal crash

Chris Woodyard | USA TODAY

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Tesla acknowledged Friday that its Autopilot partial self-driving system was engaged when one of its Model X electric crossover SUVs crashed a week ago, killing the driver.

Tesla said in a blog post on its website that it has been able to deduce from logs recovered from the SUV that the driver's hands hadn't been detected on the steering wheel for six seconds prior to the crash. It did not say that the Autopilot system was at fault in the accident.

Tesla's disclosure is sure to figure in a National Transportation Safety Board inquiry into the accident. The agency said it sent two investigators.

Although Tesla's Autopilot system is only a partial self-driving system -- more like enhanced cruise control -- the idea of cars driving themselves has fallen under scrutiny since an Uber car in self-driving mode struck and killed a woman walking a bicycle across a street in Tempe, Ariz.

The crash in Mountain View, Calif., not far from Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto, could renew questions about Autopilot, which was also engaged when a Model S sedan crashed into a truck and killed its driver in Florida last year.

In the latest crash, Tesla said Autopilot's adaptive cruise control was in the minimum following distance setting and that the driver had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning as reminders to keep his hands on the wheel prior to crashing into the center divider.

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"The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken," Tesla said.

Tesla defended Autopilot.

It said the first version would found by the government to reduce crash rates by up to 40% and that it's only gotten better -- Tesla flashes over-the-air update -- since then.

It also says Tesla's fatal crash rate on vehicles equipped with Autopilot is 3.7 times better than the national average.

"Tesla Autopilot does not prevent all accidents – such a standard would be impossible – but it makes them much less likely to occur. It unequivocally makes the world safer for the vehicle occupants, pedestrians and cyclists," the automaker said in its post.