NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt and Elon Musk Discuss Fatal Autopilot Accident

Robert Sumwalt, Chairperson of National Transportation Safety Board, and Elon Musk, Chief Executive of Tesla, had a “constructive conversation” on the investigation of the agency about the fatal crash involving a Tesla car that was operating in semi-autonomous Autopilot mode, according to the agency.

Last week, the NTSB had stated that it was “unhappy” that Tesla had made public information about the crash of a Model X vehicle that killed the driver.

According to Peter Knudson, spokesman of the agency, NTSB Chairperson “had what he described as a very constructive conversation with Mr. Musk over the weekend.”

“They discussed the investigation of the March 23 Tesla crash, NTSB investigative processes, and Tesla's work to address the safety recommendations that were issued last year.”

Meanwhile, a Tesla representative did not give any comment.

The accident has put a sharp focus on the Autopilot technology of Tesla, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel an extended time under some certain conditions.

The automaker requires drivers to agree to keep their hands on the wheel at all times before they can use Autopilot.

Drivers, on the other hand, routinely brag that they can use the system to drive hands-free.

A week after the crash, Tesla stated that the vehicle logs showed no action had been taken by the driver right before the accident and that the driver had received warnings to put his hands on the wheel.

“The NTSB is looking into all aspects of this crash including the driver's previous concerns about the Autopilot,” stated Christopher O’Neil, an NTSB representative.

The company said last month that a search of it service records did not “find anything suggesting that the customer ever complained to Tesla about the performance of Autopilot. There was a concern raised once about navigation not working correctly, but Autopilot's performance is unrelated to navigation.”

Tesla, however, disclosed that shortly before the accident, the automobile’s “autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum.”

Back in 2017, Sumwalt said that “operational limitations” in the Tesla Model S played a “major role” in a crash happened in May 2016 that killed a driver using Autopilot.

“System safeguards were lacking,” stated Sumwalt. “Tesla allowed the driver to use the system outside of the environment for which it was designed and the system gave far too much leeway to the driver to divert his attention.”

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