Tesla's Autopilot system appears to predict a car crash

Could Tesla's Autopilot system have predicted that the two vehicles in front of it would collide?

That's the mystery around a dashcam video that appears to show the collision warning system in a Tesla beeping a second before the vehicle strikes the back end of a SUV, sending it tumbling, the electric car blog Electrek reports ^[1]. The blog says the crash occurred on a highway in the Netherlands, as recorded by a Model X crossover.

No official comment from Tesla, but the electronic sound just before the crash is indeed the sound made by the electric car's forward collision warning system.

Tesla released new software earlier this year to try to make improvements in its Autopilot partial self-driving system. Tesla put more reliance on radar, rather than other sensors, and gave the car the ability to bounce radar waves underneath the vehicle in front of it. It is designed to detect if an unseen vehicle ahead of the one in front makes a sudden stop, which can lead to chain-reaction rear-end crash. It's unclear if that's what happened in the case of this accident on a Dutch highway.

The improvements beamed to Tesla cars came after a high-profile crash that killed a Tesla driver while the Autopilot system was engaged. While Tesla acknowledged that the system was unable to detect a truck about to cross its path, it appeared the driver wasn't ready to step in and hit the brakes. Tesla says Autopilot is not a full self-driving system and drivers need to stay attentive.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2hwKr2O