It is early in the morning and a Tesla traveling on an Interstate veered suddenly before crashing at high speed and catching on fire.
The Oregon State Police responded to a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 5, near milepost 33, in Jackson County, around 3:30 a.m. on June 5. Police say the investigation indicated a black Tesla Model S, driven by Shawn Douglas Kroll, 29, of Oakley, was traveling northbound on I-5 when for an “unknown reason” the car drifted off of the roadway and onto the shoulder. The car drove through a fence, struck a tree, and caught fire.
Unknown reason.
Was the driver asleep?
Probably.
Did the car maker dangerously encourage drivers to go to sleep behind the wheel?
Elon Musk: Tesla drivers can sleep behind the wheel ‘next year’ [by the end of 2020].
Did the car maker fraudulently say that the car could drive itself?
In 2014, Elon Musk continued to promise at least 90 percent self-driving by year’s end…. In 2015, Autopilot was fully rolled out to Model S drivers and Musk was promising the software would be able to handle freeways and simple roads in a matter of months.
Wrong. Dead wrong. Every year for ten years now since 2013, always a lie.
Some things are well known. What’s the unknown part, really?
Is it, who is at fault for the death of over thirty people? Should we fault the robot for killing these people, or should we fault the company for making fatally defective robots sold on a false premise they are to keep people safe?
Related: Tesla Autopilot Accused of Trying to Kill Its Owner.
Update June 9: In other news, Mercedes just achieved Level 3 autonomous driving authorization from California. That’s a capability far, far ahead of anything Tesla has ever produced (infamously failing at Level 2). For perspective, the best available driverless technology is getting authorized in 2023 under these conditions.
…California DMV is placing some serious restrictions on the Merc system. It can only operate during the day on certain limited roads, and only at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour.
In other words, it seems like an unknown… yet very high probability that Tesla knowingly killed Shawn Douglas Kroll.