Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded to the deadly crash involving a Tesla Model S that took place near Houston, Texas over the weekend. With a few quick taps on his keyboard, Musk debunked the headlines that have appeared around the world blaming Autopilot for the two tragic deaths.
Those headlines all started because of a comment made by Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman. In a television interview, the constable said his crash investigators were “100% certain no one was in the driver’s seat, driving that vehicle at the time of impact. They’re positive.”
Mainstream media was quick to pick up on the comments, with sensationalist headlines like “A driverless Tesla crashed and burned for four hours...” and “Tesla crash that killed 2 had no driver.”
One such media outlet which parroted the driverless claim was the Wall Street Journal. As we showed you earlier today, even just the smallest amount of research would have shown it to be extremely unlikely the crash happened the way authorities said it did.
https://twitter.com/DriveTeslaca/status/1384133507274792960
After reviewing the data logs from the 2019 Model S, Musk confirming Autopilot was not enabled at the time of the crash. He also derided the Wall Street Journal for their lack of research.
Your research as a private individual is better than professionals @WSJ!
Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD.
Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2021
Unfortunately the story of a driverless Tesla crashing and killing two people has been allowed to spread nearly 48 hours. Fault for that is shared equally between local authorities for jumping to conclusion before the investigation was complete, and the mainstream media that was more than happy to blame Tesla for something where there was evidence to prove it.
Now the real test will be to see if they correct their stories and cover Musk’s tweet with the same level of enthusiasm as they did the original crash. If our readers are correct, that’s unlikely to happen.
https://twitter.com/DriveTeslaca/status/1384262195198844934
