The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it is investigating a recent Tesla Model X accident that the driver blames on the vehicle's Autopilot system. Immediately after the July 1 crash, Albert Scaglione, who was driving the car, claimed it was on the self-driving Autopilot mode when it hit a guardrail, flung into the median, flipped and landed on its roof.
A subsequent investigation by Tesla was unable to determine if the system was or wasn't engaged, as the car's data transmitting antenna was severely damaged. It then announced that “based on the information we've now, we've no reason to believe that Autopilot had anything to do with this accident."
Now that the NHTSA has stepped it, it's been confirmed that information will be collected from state police, Tesla and the driver to accurately determine the cause of the crash.
This investigation comes just after the NHTSA looked into May's fatal Model S crash which also centered around that vehicle's autopilot system.
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- CarScoop