Two killed in Tesla crash in Texas, police find ‘no one driving’

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<strong>In what could be another Autopilot mode failure, two people were killed in a fiery Tesla crash in Texas with no one in the driver's seat.</strong></p>
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Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman told Houston television station KPRC 2 that the investigation showed "no one was driving" the fully electric 2019 Tesla when the accident happened.</p>
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"There was a person in the passenger seat of the front of the car and in the rear passenger seat of the car," the report quoted Herman as saying on Sunday.</p>
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Herman said it took firefighters nearly four hours and more than 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish the blaze.</p>
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"Normally when the fire department arrives, they have the vehicle fire in control in minutes, but this went on close to four hours," according to a KHOU 11 report.</p>
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At one point, crews had to call Tesla to ask how to put the fire out.</p>
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Preliminary reports suggest the car was traveling at a high speed and failed to make a turn, then drove off the road into a tree.</p>
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It's not yet clear whether the car had its Autopilot driver assist system activated.</p>
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Tesla was yet to react to the deadly incident.</p>
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There have been at least 23 Tesla Autopilot-related crashes, currently under investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).</p>
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Tesla had already cautioned that Autopilot is not an autonomous driving system and requires a driver's constant attention.</p>
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Last month, the NHTSA swung into action after the driver of a Tesla Model Y smashed into a state trooper's cruiser near Michigan.</p>
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Michigan police said the driver was using Autopilot, Tesla's advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), at the time of the crash.</p>
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The electric car-maker recently rolled out a beta version of Autopilot called "Full Self Driving", calling it the next step towards secure driving.</p>
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<em>(IANS)</em></p>
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