A collision in Florida in which a self-driving vehicle hit a tractor trailer making a turn at a highway intersection is being investigated by the U.S. government. The crash is the first in which a self-driving car has caused death.
The government is currently investigating Tesla’s auto-pilot system.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Tesla hit the semi truck when the truck was making a left turn on a divided highway intersection.
The Tesla was destroyed as everything below its windshield passed under the tractor, coming to a stop hundreds of feet further on.
The Tesla driver died of injuries from the crash, which happened May 7 in Williston, a city southwest of Gainesville, Florida.
According to Tesla, the car’s system did not notice the white side of the tractor-trailer against the sky. The driver didn’t notice, either, Tesla’s representatives said, and no one hit the brakes.
“The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer,” said Tesla.
Currently, the NHTSA is undertaking the process of easing self-driving vehicles onto U.S. roads, and Tesla has become famous as a front-runner in the production of popular self-driving vehicles.