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Tesla denies malfunction caused crash that killed cyclist

Tesla Inc. says it will assist the police investigation into the collision that killed a cyclist and motorcyclist in China

Tesla Inc. is assisting a police investigation in China's Guangdong province after a fatal crash that killed a cyclist and motorcyclist involved one of its Model Y sports utility vehicles.

The company says it does not believe the incident was caused by a malfunction as Bloomberg reports data taken from the vehicle showed no proof the brake had been applied before the crash, while footage does not show the brake light activated.

It is being reported that instead the vehicle data shows the accelerator was heavily engaged in the moments before a motorcyclist and high-school student riding a bicycle were hit and killed in Chaozhou on November 5.

Footage which circulated on Chinese social media site Weibo apparently shows the Model Y accelerating before crashing and prompted a "family member of the driver" to claim the driver had lost control for more than one-and-a-half miles and could not slow the car down.

The family member suggested a technical problem with the vehicle must have caused the collision, something Tesla denies but says it will work with Chinese police to assist with the investigation.

The Model Y is Tesla's fully electric sports utility vehicle and has 'autopilot' technology, although there is no suggestion the vehicle was in autopilot mode during the aforementioned incident.

Tesla says the vehicle weighs almost two tonnes (1,995kg) and can hit top speeds of 150mph, with a 0-60mph time of 3.5 seconds. 

"Safety is the most important part of every Tesla. We design our vehicles to exceed safety standards," the brand says on its website before stating the Model Y achieved a 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating.

Back in May a Tesla Model 3 under test detected and braked to avoid collision with a dummy cyclist crossing its path, something an assisted driving system installed in a Subaru car failed to do five times during the same testing.

However, the company's coverage on this website has not always been so positive. In February we shared footage from San Francisco of a YouTuber almost ramming a cyclist while his Tesla was in Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta mode.

Earlier in the same month another video showed the same Beta in another vehicle causing a Tesla to crash into a cycle lane bollard. That clip came just weeks after Elon Musk had claimed the programme had not been responsible for a single collision since its release in October 2020.

Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to BalladOfStruth | 1 year ago
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Similar experience on my first time but not for the same reasons. I went for the brake with the left foot as I wanted to use it for driving still. I didn't realise that although it felt like the same force, the right foot and left foot had been trained to apply different pressures so I was doing the equivalent of slamming on the brake rather then gently applying the pressure. I actually thought it was a safety feature at first (heavy brakes to overcome accelerator actions) until I realised it was my clumsiness. 

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quiff replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
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Not long after passing my driving test, with the over-confidence of youth, I thought I was probably good enough to have a go at left foot braking. What I thought would be a gentle brush of the brakes actually turned into an emergency stop and (as I was in a manual) a stall. Thankfully I was on an empty road at slow speed. Never again.

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Calc replied to AidanR | 1 year ago
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Exactly right.  Also, what came out of that investigation was that no matter how hard you push the accelerator, if you also push the brakes at the same time, the car will stop straight away.  Even a V8 engine going full power was easily overcome by the brakes.   Another factor was that the drivers were installing thick luxury sheepskin floor mats in their cars which were slipping.  The drivers couldn't push the brakes all the way to the floor.  They would then get confused, panic and switch to pushing the accelerator thinking they were pushing the wrong pedal previously.

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Sriracha replied to AidanR | 1 year ago
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AidanR wrote:

This wouldn't be the first time that a driver crashed because they've been pressing the accelerator when they thought that they were pressing the brake.

Not long after I passed my test I was pulling up to the pumps in a petrol station when some idiot walked across in front of me. Instinctively I stood on the brake pedal, which proved to be the accelerator. Unaccountably, it turns out I was in neutral at the time, so instead of ending his life right there I merely rolled uncomfortably close whilst revving my engine to the red line. He gave me a look as if to say, "what's your problem mate?" The Grim Reaper went home cheated.

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IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
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Musk would probably claim it as vindication of Tesla's approach and suggest how much safer it would have been without a driver.

However, surely a Tesla being driven manually still has active collision avoidance systems that would ignore accelerator input and apply brakes if it detected an imminent crash?

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Zjtm231 replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
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Have a listen of this podcast:

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/blame-game

 

Unfortunately will make you even less trusting of people behind the wheel of cars....

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OnYerBike replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
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IanMSpencer wrote:

However, surely a Tesla being driven manually still has active collision avoidance systems that would ignore accelerator input and apply brakes if it detected an imminent crash?

I'm not aware of any collision avoidance system that is perfect. They might stop you if you're driving directly towards a brick wall. But with thing like corners, junctions and other vehicles moving, it's very hard to prevent every collision - you have to make assumptions about what both the driver of the vehicle and every other road user is going to do. Otherwise you'd never get anywhere!

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HoarseMann replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
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Flooring the accelerator will probably override any current collision avoidance system.

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CyclingInGawler replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
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Certainly true of my new Mazda.

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kil0ran replied to HoarseMann | 1 year ago
2 likes

This is how the speed limiter defeat works on a lot of modern cars, including those sold prior to the new mandatory speed limiter devices

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