Tesla engineers reportedly admit no autopilot fix after fatal crash

According to recent reports, engineers at Tesla, led by Elon Musk, acknowledged that the Autopilot system was not updated following a fatal accident in 2016 that claimed a driver's life.

This revelation emerged during testimonies given by the engineers in 2021, as part of a lawsuit brought by a family affected by a similar fatal collision involving a Tesla in 2019.

The lawsuit is currently headed for trial in the United States.

During the testimonies, it was revealed that despite the company's awareness of the potential for cross traffic and the associated risks, the Autopilot system at the time was not designed to detect such scenarios.

Engineer Chris Payne, in his 2021 testimony excerpted in a recent court filing, stated that Tesla made no modifications to its driver-assistance technology to address the issue of crossing traffic between the two high-profile accidents that resulted in fatal collisions with trucks.

The family of one of the deceased Tesla owners is seeking punitive damages in the upcoming trial scheduled for October. Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance features have come under significant scrutiny.

However, in a related 2019 crash, jurors ruled in favor of Tesla in April of this year, granting no damages to the plaintiff who sued the company in 2020.

In a separate incident involving a fatal crash in 2021, Tesla received clearance from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for a Model S equipped with the Autopilot system.

Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is conducting an investigation into self-driving claims made by Musk.

In February, Tesla temporarily halted the rollout of its Full Self-Driving beta software in the US and Canada due to a system recall.