The Tesla Model X that crashed in California while being guided by its semiautonomous driving system sped up to 71 mph in the seconds before the vehicle slammed into a highway barrier, investigators said Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the March 23 crash showing that the driver's hands were detected on the steering wheel only 34 seconds during the last minute before impact.
The investigation is the latest to shine a spotlight into potential flaws in emerging autonomous driving technology. Another NTSB probe of a self-driving Uber Technologies Inc. car that killed a pedestrian March 18 in Arizona found that the car's sensors picked up the victim, but the vehicle wasn't programmed to brake for obstructions.
Walter Huang, a 38-year-old engineer who worked at Apple Inc., died in Mountain View, Calif., in the March 23 crash when his Model X struck a highway barrier as he was using the driver-assistance system known as Autopilot. The car's computer didn't sense his hands on the steering wheel for six seconds before the collision, according to NTSB.
You can reach Ryan Beene at autonews@crain.com