Driverless Tesla car crashes into a tree and kills two

Tesla autopilot feature can be tricked into operating without a driver according to consumer reports engineers who looked into claims that Autopilot can operate without a driver present. On Saturday two men were killed after a Tesla car crashed into a tree and caught fire in Texas.

The victims found in the front passenger seat and in the back seat of the vehicle, leading police to come to the conclusion that nobody was in the driver’s seat. However, Elon Musk, Tesla’s boss said that “data logs recovered so far show autopilot was not enabled and moreover, the standard autopilot would require lane line to turn on, which this street did not have”.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ( NHTSA) has opened investigations into 28 crashes involving Tesla vehicles.

They tested the Model Y on a closed track and concluded the system could be “ easily tricked”.

After a fatal Tesla crash in Texas, police believe no one was in the driver’s seat of the car.

Tesla’s autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system that Tesla says “enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel”.

“In our evaluation, the system not only failed to ensure the drive was paying attention but it also couldn’t tell if there was a driver there at all. It was a bit frightening when we realized how easy it was to defeat the safeguards which we proved were clearly insufficient”, said Consumer Reports auto testing director Jake Fisher.

On Tesla’s website, the autopilot system requires a “ fully attentive driver” and using the system does not make the car autonomous.

Some of the safety requirements for Autopilot mode include keeping the driver’s hands on the steering wheel, buckling the seatbelt, and not opening any door.