Detroit: Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board apparently have solved the mystery of why no one was found behind the steering wheel of a Tesla that crashed in Texas two years ago, killing two men.
The agency said in an investigative report released Wednesday on the fiery April 17, 2021 crash in the Houston suburb of Spring that the 59-year-old Tesla driver apparently moved to the back seat after slamming into the car’s front air bag, deforming the steering wheel in the crash.
Although the crash raised questions about whether the car was operating on Tesla’s “Autopilot” partially automated driving system, the NTSB determined that the system could not have been used on the street where the crash happened due to lack of lane lines. Testing showed the car’s “Traffic Aware Cruise Control” system could have been used, although it would only work up to the maximum speed on the suburban road, 30 mph, the report said.
The 2019 Tesla reached 67 mph two seconds before hitting the second of two trees at 57 mph before being consumed by flames as the lithium-ion battery caught fire.
The Tesla’s event data recorder showed that the accelerator moved “consistent with driver activity” in the five seconds before the crash, and that the driver’s seat belt was connected when the crash happened.
