Tesla Examining 2 Theories To Explain Fatal 'Autopilot' Accident

While many theories about the cause of the accident have been floating around, Tesla Motors told the US Senate Commerce Committee staff that it has zeroed down on two theories that could possibly explain what led to the fatal crash. A source told Reuters that the company informed congressional aides on Thursday that they were still trying to understand the "system failure" that led to the crash.

Tesla is attempting to ascertain if it was the Model S' radar and camera input for the vehicle's automatic emergency braking system that failed to detect the truck trailer or if the automatic braking system's radar detected the trailer but disregarded it as part of a design to "tune out" structures such as bridges to avoid triggering false braking.

While Tesla refused to comment upon the proceedings of the meeting, it did refute the claim that the company suggested that the vehicle's cameras nor radar "caused" the accident. With that said, it is still unclear if other factors are being examined.

Following the uproar over the accident, Tesla released a blog post where it said, "When drivers activate Autopilot, the acknowledgment box explains, among other things, that Autopilot "is an assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times," and that "you need to maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle" while using it. It also stated that "neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky."

According to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)'s preliminary report, the Tesla Model S was travelling at 119Km/h (74mph) in a 104Km/h (65mph) zone at the time of the accident. Though the report further confirmed the driver had engaged advanced driver assistance features Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping assistance at the time, a probable cause of the crash is yet to be established.