On Sunday, a Tesla vehicle was involved in a crash in central Minnesota. According to the local sheriff’s department, after the crash, the driver, David Clark, blamed Tesla’s Autopilot as the root cause of the accident. Now, the driver has recanted his statement.
Following the incident, the sheriff’s department reported that Clark had said that when he turned on the Autopilot system it caused the car to accelerate and then roll over, which resulted in minor injuries to himself and his four passengers.
However, after calming down and talking to his passengers, Clark wrote an email to Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:$TSLA) – which the company released to the public today – stating that he believes he disengaged the Autopilot system at the time of the crash.
After the crash was reported, Tesla shares dropped in trading on Monday. The shares, which fell as low as $313.45, rebounded later on and were down 2.8% at $318.69 in afternoon trading. “I did not intend to put the blame on Tesla or the autopilot system as I am aware that I need to be in control of the vehicle regardless if the autopilot system is engaged or not,” Clark wrote in his e-mail to the sheriff’s department.
Tesla seems to agree with what Clark had to say as the automaker said in their own statement: “Every time a driver engages Autopilot, they are reminded of their responsibility to remain engaged and to be prepared to take immediate action at all times, and drivers must acknowledge their responsibility to do so before Autopilot is enabled.”
Featured Image: twitter
