The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has concluded the Tesla Autopilot investigation since it did not find any probable cause to make the recall. The investigation commenced last August 2016 following the fatal crash that resulted in the death of Joshua Brown.
The incident happened when a semi truck driven by the 62-year-old, Frank Baressi hit the Tesla Model S car of 40-year-old Joshua Brown in an intersection at the Florida Highway. According to the Business Insider, Tesla Model S was not able to distinguish the white truck and the white sky and in effect, the cars' Autopilot system did not hit the break causing the Model S to pass the truck and continue to drove off.
Because of this incident, the NHTSA conducted an investigation to determine if Tesla has any liabilities and if there is a need for a Tesla Model S recall. But on Thursday, the NHTSA closed the investigation.
According to Business Insider, the NHTSA stressed two significant explanations for this. For one, although the Tesla Model S car is Level 2 self-driving car, the driver still has a responsibility to monitor the system and take action if there is a need to do so. Second, the older Autopilot system is not capable of detecting traffic conditions hence requires the driver to intervene in such cases.
As mentioned in the Techcrunch report, there's no doubt that the autopilot system was engaged during the collision however since the Tesla investigation started, they had already updated their software and made the Autopilot system radar more advanced. This upgrade is made to ensure that the incident will not happen again. They also added that this is an isolated case and in fact the sole incident that caused the death of its driver.
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