A Tesla vehicle, possibly running the company's Autopilot system, struck and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle, raising questions about whether a recent recall went far enough to ensure Tesla drivers using Autopilot would pay attention to the road.
After the crash Friday in a suburb about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the city, the driver of a 2022 Tesla Model S told a Washington State Patrol trooper that he was using Autopilot and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was in motion.
“The next thing he knew there was an explosion and the vehicle was thrown forward as it accelerated and hit the motorcycle in front of him,” the trooper wrote in a probable cause document.
The 56-year-old driver was arrested for investigation into vehicular homicide “based on his admission of not paying attention to driving, while on autopilot, being distracted by a cell phone while proceeding, and trusting the machine to drive for him.” The affidavit said.
The Tesla driver told the officer that he was driving home after eating lunch when the accident occurred at approximately 3:45 p.m.
The motorcyclist, Jeffrey Nissen, 28, of Stanwood, Washington, was underneath the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
Authorities said they have not yet independently verified whether Autopilot was in use at the time of the accident. “We're not there yet. It's very early stages of the investigation,” Washington State Patrol Capt. Deon Glover said Wednesday.
The death comes about four months after US auto safety regulators pressured Tesla to do so Recalling more than 2 million vehicles To fix a faulty system that's supposed to make sure drivers pay attention when using Autopilot.
A message was left on Wednesday seeking comment from Tesla, which collects online data from its cars.
As part of the December recall, Part of a two-year investigation After Tesla cars with Autopilot crashed into emergency vehicles parked on roads, Tesla reluctantly agreed to update its Autopilot software to increase warnings and alerts to drivers.
Autopilot can keep the car centered in its lane and at a distance from vehicles in front of it, but Tesla says on its website that the cars cannot drive themselves, despite the name.
The company's monitoring system sends alerts to drivers if it fails to detect torque from the hands touching the steering wheel, a system that experts described as insufficient. They say the systems should have infrared cameras to make sure drivers keep their eyes on the road.
It is not known whether the Tesla vehicle involved in the death of a motorcyclist in Washington received the software update specified in the recall, but documents submitted by Tesla to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say that most newer Tesla vehicles have software that includes the update automatically.
The software update automatically rolled into most Tesla vehicles, said Kelly Fankhauser, associate director of vehicle technology at Consumer Reports.
Many Tesla cars have cameras in the cabin that can watch drivers using Autopilot, but Funkhouser said Consumer Reports found during testing that drivers can cover the cameras without consequences.
Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies vehicle automation safety, said the government should investigate the incident to see if the recall fixes did what they were intended to do.
If Autopilot is in use, “NHTSA should look at this as a data point on whether Tesla has effectively eliminated unreasonable risks from using Autopilot,” Koopman said. “The problem is that this affects other road users, which is why regulatory intervention is appropriate.”
A message was left seeking comment from NHTSA. Since 2016, the agency has sent investigators to at least 35 crashes where Tesla vehicles, suspected to be partially automated, collided with parked emergency vehicles, motorcyclists or tractor trailers that crossed the vehicles' paths, causing a total of 17 deaths.
The agency is also investigating incidents involving automated driving systems from other automakers. Recently I sent teams to Two fatal accidents Ford Mustang Mach-E electric cars included.