2 men dead after driverless Tesla crashes into tree in The Woodlands
Posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2021 at 9:21 pm
THE WOODLANDS, TX – Two people were killed after a driverless Tesla collided with a tree in The Woodlands last night, according to KHOU.
The accident occurred on Hammock Dunes Place at about 9 p.m., when a Tesla Model S driverless vehicle reportedly failed to properly round a turn while traveling at a high rate of speed. The vehicle then went off the roadway and collided with a tree.
The vehicle burst into flames, and required over 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish. Crews fought the fire for over 4 hours, while a normal car fire takes only a few minutes to get under control.
A 69-year-old man and a 59-year-old man were killed at the scene, and their bodies pulled from the wreckage after the fire was extinguished. Their identities were not immediately released.
According to the Montgomery County Police Reporter, the vehicle’s batteries repeatedly re-ignited the fire.
Authorities had to contact Tesla to learn how to extinguish the difficult-to-fight blaze.
Nobody was in the driver’s seat at the time of impact.
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, tweeted just a few hours before the crash that driverless Teslas are nearly ten times less likely to be involved in a collision compared to those average vehicles.
Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of accident than average vehicle https://t.co/6lGy52wVhC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2021
The accident remains under investigation at this time.
