The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said that the Apple employee who died after his Tesla car crashed was playing a video game while using autopilot.
According to NTSB investigators, the card had been driving semi-autonomously using Tesla's Autopilot software while the driver was playing a video game on his smartphone. The NTSB just published the results of its two-year investigation of the accident.
In March 2018, Tesla's Autopilot software steered the vehicle into the triangular "gore area" at a motorway intersection, and accelerated into a concrete barrier. As a result, the car's front separated from the rear, causing two other drivers to crash.
The Tesla's driver, Walter Huang, was taken to hospital but died of his injuries while the other drivers survived the crash.
According to the NTSB, Huang had not taken control of the car because he had been distracted by a smartphone video game. The agency also found that the collision avoidance system was "not designed to detect the crash [barrier]".
Another NTSB finding was that Tesla's Autopilot system did not "provide an effective means of monitoring the driver's engagement".
While Tesla advises drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheels while using autopilot and implemented audible warnings if they don't, NTSB argued that "monitoring of driver-applied steering wheel torque is an ineffective surrogate measure of driver engagement".
The agency pointed out: "If Tesla does not incorporate system safeguards that limit the use of the Autopilot system to those conditions for which it was designed, continued use of the system beyond its operational design domain is foreseeable and the risk for future crashes will remain."
It recommends Tesla to improve collision avoidance systems to include common obstacles such as traffic barriers and prevent automation complacency in drivers.
The NTSB wants to evaluate Tesla's Autopilot to determine whether the ability to operate it "outside the intended operational design" posed an unreasonable risk to safety. It also wants to require all new passenger vehicles with semi-autonomous features to be equipped with a driver monitoring system that meets new standards.
