Chinanews.com, February 26. According to a comprehensive report by the Chinese language website of the United States, in March 2018, a Tesla car accident in Silicon Valley, California, the United States, caught US attention at the time. Walter Huang, an engineer of Chinese descent driving Tesla, died on the spot.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on February 25 that the deceased was playing video games on his smartphone before the accident, and his Tesla was in an autonomous driving state.
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Tesla's Autopilot was not driving itself, but at the time the driver used the autopilot system and did not pay attention to driving conditions and conditions.
"If you have a partially automated car, that doesn't mean you own a self-driving car. This means you can't read books, watch movies or TV when driving in the assumed 'autonomous' mode." You ca n’t send text messages or play video games. "
The Associated Press said the NTSB will determine the cause of the crash and make recommendations to prevent similar accidents from happening again. Sam Walter said government regulators ignored the Commission's previous recommendations for measures to prevent these accidents.
In March 2018, a crash involving a Tesla Model X SUV killed Apple engineer Walter Huang, who was driving into a concrete roadblock on the Mountain View California highway.
The NTSB said that just before the crash, Tesla turned left toward the paved area between the highway and the exit ramp. At that time it accelerated to 71 mph and crashed into concrete. NTSB said the car's front-end collision avoidance system did not warn the dead, and automatic emergency braking was not activated.
NTSB staff said that after investigation, the deceased had not made active braking at the time and had not made a steering action to avoid a collision.
NTSB investigators previously found that Tesla's autonomous driving system became chaotic at the highway exit, which was a factor in the crash. A document released earlier in February cited relatives of Walter Hua as saying that he had complained several times during his lifetime that the autopilot system had malfunctioned near the crash site and turned to the road automatically.
The autopilot is designed to keep the vehicle in the lane and maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead. It can also change lanes with driver approval. Tesla said the autopilot is designed to help drivers, and drivers must be ready to intervene.
NTSB staff believes that Tesla's system cannot adequately ensure the driver's attention, and therefore recommends a more powerful driver monitoring system. Sam Walter said that NTSB had made recommendations to six automakers in 2017 to stop the problem, and only Tesla did not respond to it.
Sam Walter said that NTSB had called for technology nine years ago to disable smartphone interference while driving, but Tesla has not taken any action yet.
Don Karol, NTSB's highway safety project manager, said NTSB staff advised cell phone companies to program phones to automatically lock out distracting features such as games and phones when someone is driving. The staff also suggested that the company develop policies to prevent company employees from using the company's mobile phones while driving.
"The locking mechanism should be set by default and should automatically lock distracting features," Carroll said.
The Associated Press says the NTSB can only make recommendations, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the agency responsible for making the regulations.
NHTSA told NTSB that 14 Tesla crashes have been investigated and necessary action will be taken based on the implementation of its security flaws.
NHTSA said it will review the NTSB's report and that all commercial vehicles require drivers to maintain control at all times. "Accidents caused by driver distraction are a major problem, including those involving advanced driver assistance functions," NHTSA said in a statement.