Tesla Cleared in Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash

PALO ALTO, CA -- Electric car company Tesla Motors has been cleared in a probe by federal officials regarding a fatal May 2016 accident involving one of its Model S vehicles.

On Jan. 19, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officially closed its investigation into the crash, in which Tesla owner Joshua Brown, 40, of Ohio, was killed while driving on a Florida highway. In its report, the safety administration said that the Tesla's self-driving system had no defects and performed as designed and intended.

The investigation was opened after the widespread attention garnered by the crash, which was operating in a self-driving mode Tesla calls Autopilot. The car crashed into a tractor-trailer that was crossing the road in front of Brown's car, and neither the driver nor Autopilot engaged the braking system.

Tesla said that although Autopilot is built to apply the brakes in such situations, the car's camera failed to register the white truck against the day's bright sky. The driver, according to the NHTSA report, had at least seven seconds to apply the brakes before the collision, but apparently failed to see the tractor-trailer because he was distracted.

The NHTSA failed to fault Tesla because the Model S' Autopilot system operated as it was designed to, and did not malfunction.

"Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, such as Tesla’s Autopilot, require the continual and full attention of the driver to monitor the traffic environment and be prepared to take action to avoid crashes," the NHTSA explained in its report. "The systems have limitations and may not always detect threats or provide warnings or automatic braking early enough to avoid collisions."

"NHTSA’s examination did not identify any defects in design or performance of the AEB or Autopilot systems of the subject vehicles nor any incidents in which the systems did not perform as designed," the 13-page report continues, while also noting that such self-driving systems are rear-end collision avoidance technologies that aren't designed to reliably perform in all crash modes, including crossing path collisions.

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