Tesla is involved in yet another car crash that took the life of a 23-year old Chinese man named Gao Yaning. Reports are coming in that Tesla Model S was travelling on a highway when it collided with a street-sweeping vehicle parked on the side of the road.
The family of the victim is now suing the American company for the crash in the grounds that their product - marketed as an auto-pilot vehicle - failed to prevent the accident. As of now, It's still unclear whether or not the auto-pilot feature was engaged when the mishap occurred.
"Because of the damage caused by the collision, the car was physically incapable of transmitting log data to our servers and we therefore have no way of knowing whether or not Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash," Tesla said in a statement.
Dashcam footage of the accident showed that the Model S did not appear to slow down as it barreled towards the street-sweeper, nor did it attempt to evade the obstacle. Tesla has repeatedly stated that while their vehicle can indeed take over the wheel, the driver is instructed to be aware at all times so they can react to circumstances that might be beyond the car's technology.
The automaker has also reached out to Gao's father - the owner of the Model S - to give them further details of the accident but the man is apparently uncooperative with the company.
This is the third incident involving Tesla in a fatal car crash. One occurred in Florida last May where the accident claimed Joshua Brown, and the other happened recently in Netherlands that took the life of a 53-year old man.
Another recent incident with the Model S in China involved a man named Luo Zhen where his car grazed another vehicle which damaged the left side of its front bumper. Luo admitted that he didn't have his hands on the wheel and was checking his phone at the time.
However, Luo argued that the car was sold to him as a self-driving vehicle. The autopilot feature has been questioned in the past for how it's named which can cause misinterpretation to those buying the vehicle.
Here is the dashcam footage of the incident. It happened around the 35-second mark.
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