Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Two Dead in Tesla Self-Driving Vehicle Crash


Mon 19 Apr 2021 | 01:18 AM
Taarek Refaat

Authorities said two men died after a self-operating Tesla vehicle collided with a tree Saturday night north of Houston, Texas.

"There was nobody in the driver’s seat," said Cynthia Umanzor of the Harris County. Umanzor said the two victims were born in 1962 and 1951.

A local TV station "KHOU" said that the 2019 Tesla Model S was traveling at high speed, when it failed to pass a curve and got off the road, crashed into a tree and caught fire.

After the fire was extinguished, authorities identified two passengers in the car, one in the front passenger seat while the other was in the back seat of the car, said Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Hermann.

[caption id="attachment_232079" align="aligncenter" width="1474"] A Tesla car crashed in Woodlands, Texas, on Saturday night, killing its two passengers. PHOTO: SCOTT J. ENGLE[/caption]

The crash comes amid increasing concerns of Tesla's semi-automatic driving system in the wake of recent accidents, as the U.S. giant is preparing to launch an updated full self-driving program for new customers.

The U.S. Auto Safety Agency had opened 27 investigations into the Tesla crashes, of which at least three incidents have occurred recently.

 CEO Elon Musk said earlier that he expects huge profits from the fully self-driving program, adding that he is extremely confident that the car will be able to drive itself with reliability this year.