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Tesla allegedly on autopilot smashes into bright red firetruck in California

By Shane McGlaun/

Fire trucks are brightly colored for a reason, you need to be able to see them. They also have flashing lights and noisy sirens, all the stuff you need to notice the truck and get out of its way. A Tesla driver of what appears to be a Model S crashed into the back of a fire truck in California recently and according to the driver, the vehicle was on Autopilot at the time.

The fire truck was parked on the side of the freeway at the scene of an accident on Monday morning according to authorities. The accident happened about 8:30 a.m. on Interstate 405 in Culver City. The fire truck was flanked by a highway patrol vehicle nearby at the time of the accident. Reports indicate that the firetruck was parked at an angle in the left emergency and carpool lanes to block the scene of a previous accident.

Both the fire truck and the highway patrol vehicle nearby had their lights flashing. The takeaway here is that the driver of the Tesla was clearly inattentive during the accident. Tesla has only stated after the incident that Autopilot is "intended for use only with a fully attentive driver."

Despite clear indications that the driver of the vehicle wasn't attentive, the National Transportation Safety Board has sent a pair of investigators to LA expected to arrive today and begin a probe into the crash. The probe will focus on "the driver's actions and how the vehicle performed" according to reports.

Investigation officials said that the Tesla stuck the fire truck very hard and if any police or firefighters had been at the rear of the truck at the time of the accident, there would have been a much worse outcome. As it is no one suffered an injury in the accident.

SOURCE: Mercury News

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