Tesla is being criticized from all sides for once again blaming the March 23 death of Apple engineer Walter Huang for the crash that killed him, reports Bloomberg. In a statement following an ABC7 news report with Huang’s family, the company insisted the “only” way the crash happened was if Huang was not paying attention:
“According to the family, Mr. Huang was well aware that Autopilot was not perfect and, specifically, he told them it was not reliable in that exact location, yet he nonetheless engaged Autopilot at that location. The crash happened on a clear day with several hundred feet of visibility ahead, which means that the only way for this accident to have occurred is if Mr. Huang was not paying attention to the road, despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so.”
One highway safety advocate told Bloomberg she found it “shocking” that Tesla would imply Huang must have been at fault. The NTSB is currently investigating the crash and has not reached a conclusion as to why exactly it occurred, but the organization is reportedly not happy that Tesla has been blogging about the crash and disclosing details about it while the investigation is ongoing.
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