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WBTV, CBS television affiliate for Charlotte, NC reports
Tesla Motors says the Model S sedan involved in a fatal crash in the Netherlands wasn't operating in the company's semi-autonomous Autopilot mode and was going more than 96 miles per hour when it crashed.
The 53-year-old driver of the electric sedan died [September 6] when his car smashed into a tree in the central Dutch town of Baarn and burst into flames, police and firefighters said. Police are investigating the cause of the early morning accident in the town 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Amsterdam.
Tesla said the car's logs show Autopilot wasn't engaged at any time during the man's trip, and that he was driving at more than 155 kilometers per hour, or 96 mph. The speed is consistent with the damage the car sustained from hitting the tree, the company said. Tesla sent representatives to the scene of the accident.
Electrek adds
The driver was reportedly dead by the time the firefighters were on the scene.
[...] The fire was difficult to extinguish according to the firefighters. They reportedly didn't know how to approach the vehicle without being electrocuted--leaving the body of the driver in the vehicle.
[...] Apparently, the problem wasn't due to a lack of knowledge on how to handle a crashed electric vehicle, but because of the state of the wreckage. [...] "This car is completely destroyed, hampering the recovery. In this situation, you never know what can happen."
Some of the battery modules reportedly fell out of the battery pack after the crash and subsequent fire.
[Eds Comment: The speed limit on the road was 90 kph / 56 mph. The vehicle is assessed to have been travelling at 154 kph/ 96 mph
See also: https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=15392&cid=398721]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @12:27AM
You are assuming that neither Telsa nor the car are lying.
There is a possibility that it was on autopilot, and that the autopilot glitched and crashed the car at high speed.
What proof do we have that the logs are accurate? What proof they haven't been tampered with?
Do we trust proprietary code? Has Tesla's code been audited? Has Tesla's logging system been audited? Show us the code!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Noldir on Friday September 09 2016, @08:16AM
As stated above, he was going somewhere in between 47 and 59kph to fast! I know those roads because I live in the Netherlands. And as stated above, there are no 90 kph roads and there are no trees near ithe side of a road over 80 kph.
The 80kph roads are just barely 2 lane and most large American cars would struggle to drive there (very small lanes and usually bendy as heck) . 60kph Roads are best described as being 1.5 lanes. They're often, as a general rule, poorly or not lit at all. Those maximum speeds are in this case really meant as a maximum. When passing other vehicles or cornering it's usually not possible to maintain those speeds without causing an accident or crashing.
I don't care if it was on autopilot or not, you're a complete jackass if you drive that fast on those roads. No autopilot is going to save you because at those speeds you're unable to corner on those roads unless you drive a rally car.
And going by the fact that this happens with certain regularity this is for me almost non news. So it was a Tesla this time. Big deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @09:14AM
You are using Teslas claim to prove that Tesla isn't lying. By that logic, nobody could ever be lying.
I'm not saying that Tesla necessarily IS lying, but if that's the best argument as to why they aren't, you are more likely to convince people that they are, than that they are not.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @10:06AM
Duh. The damage to the car and the tree are very good indicators of the vehicle speed at impact.