Detroit police investigating an accident involving a Tesla Model Y housed under a semi-truck trailer do not believe that the car’s autopilot system was activated at the time of the collision.
Monday’s incident left a passenger in the car in critical condition while the driver suffered minor injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent a team to investigate the accident, which it described as “violent” and was similar to two fatal accidents in Florida that involved the autopilot feature.
“All the indications we have at this point are that it was not in autopilot mode, that the driver was in control of the vehicle at the time of the accident,” Deputy Chief David LeValley told Fox 2 WJBK.
LeValley said the driver claimed he was in control and that surveillance images before the collision showed the car doing what appeared to be evasive maneuvers before the impact.
Tesla’s autopilot is able to brake to avoid obstacles, while its Full Self-Driving feature has additional functionality that includes stop signal and red light recognition and the ability to overtake other cars on the highway.
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A beta version of Full Self-Driving currently being tested by a small group of Tesla owners can drive cars on city streets without much human intervention, according to the company.
LaValley said the investigation continues, however, and that the car’s data will be checked to see if it is possible to determine whether or not driver assistants were in use at the time of the accident.