Tesla Motors says it’s unlikely that its semi-autonomous Autopilot system was engaged when a Model S crashed in Indianapolis early Thursday morning, killing the driver and a passenger.
In a statement issued late Thursday, the electric car maker said it’s cooperating with Indianapolis police, who are investigating.
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Tesla said the car sustained so much damage that it didn’t transmit data to the company’s servers. That data would show if the driver had the car in Autopilot mode.
But the company said the system likely wasn’t engaged, because Autopilot would have limited the vehicle’s speed to less than 60 kilometres per hour on the street where the accident occurred. Witness statements and the damage to the car suggest the car was going faster than that, Tesla said.
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Witnesses reported the car was travelling “erratically” and “weaving” at a high rate of speed when it hit a tree, crashed into a building and caught fire, leaving a trail of burning battery components.
Authorities said the crash killed 27-year-old driver Casey Speckman and 44-year-old passenger Kevin McCarthy.