Tesla booted off fatal Model X crash investigation

Tesla has been kicked out of a group investigating a fatal accident involving one of its Model X electric cars, after allegedly “violating” an agreement not to release information about the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the US traffic watchdog, said it will no longer seek the electric car company’s help in the investigation as it released information about the accident before it had been “vetted and confirmed by the NTSB”.

Responding to the watchdog’s statement, a Tesla spokesperson told Teslarati: “It’s been clear in our conversations with the NTSB that they’re more concerned with press headlines than actually promoting safety.”

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Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted that his company had disclosed the details of the crash, which occurred on 23 March in Mountain View, California, in the interest of “public safety”.

The information revealed that the driver, Walter Huang, had engaged the vehicle’s driverless Autopilot system, which is believed to have caused the car to veer into a concrete barrier, ABC7 reports. Huang was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries.

According to the US-based news site, prior to the crash Huang had said that the self-driving feature was not working correctly, and that the system had tried to steer him into the barrier involved in the accident on multiple occasions.

However, a statement on the Tesla website says that “logs from the computer inside the vehicle” indicate that Huang had “received several visual and one audible hands-on warning” immediately before the crash.

The carmaker’s Autopilot system requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all times, Engadget reports. Drivers who take their hands off the wheel are given several warnings before the system disengages.