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AP: Tesla looking at cameras, radar in Florida crash

 
Published July 30, 2016

DETROIT — Tesla engineers told members of a Senate committee they are looking into the role cameras and radar played in the fatal crash of a Model S using self-driving mode, the Associated Press reported, speaking to a person familiar with the meeting.

The engineers have two main theories, this person said. Either the car's cameras and radar failed to spot a crossing tractor-trailer. Or the cameras didn't see the rig and the car's computer thought the radar signal was false, possibly from an overpass or sign.

Tesla officials disclosed these theories to U.S. Senate Commerce Committee staff members in a briefing Thursday, according to the AP source, who didn't want to be identified because the meeting was private.

The driver of the Model S, Joshua Brown of Canton, Ohio, was killed when the sedan hit the side of a tractor-trailer while traveling 9 mph above the speed limit on a highway near Gainesville, federal accident investigators have said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating the May 7 crash, has said that the car's Autopilot system was engaged.

Brown, 40, a tech company owner, was using the car's automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping features at the time, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Tesla is still working to pinpoint what system failures caused the crash.