[NYDailyNews] Police have identified the two men who died in a fiery, allegedly driverless Tesla crash outside Houston earlier this week.William Varner, a 58-year-old anesthesiologist, was killed, as was Everette Talbot, 69, authorities said. It was Talbot’s spouse who was first notified of the accident, reported KHOU-TV.
The accident happened at about 11:25 p.m. Saturday in the Houston suburb of Spring, and apparently "no one was driving" the Tesla Model S when it smashed into a tree as it tried to navigate a cul-de-sac, Harris County police said.
The car, which can be driven on autopilot, burst into flames upon impact. One occupant was found in the front passenger seat and the owner in the back seat, police said.
It took 30,000 gallons of water to put out the fire, which burned for four hours, authorities told KHOU.
The victims had left a house saying they were going to test the vehicle’s driverless capabilities, a witness told Reuters.
But Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Monday that his data showed the autopilot feature was not enabled and that the owner had in fact not purchased autopilot capabilities. Even if enabled, the feature does not render the vehicle autonomous, Tesla has said.
There you have it! They thought that button they pushed meant autopilot!
"Data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled & this car did not purchase FSD," Musk tweeted. "Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have."
The National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are both investigating, KHOU reported.
The NHTSA has been stepping up inquiries into Tesla crashes lately, The Associated Press noted, but has not yet gone so far as to regulate them — a stance that could change.
"With a new administration in place, we’re reviewing regulations around autonomous vehicles," the agency said last month.
Some say Musk has over-hyped the self-driving capacity of his systems, hiding caveats in the fine print.
"Elon’s been totally irresponsible," Alain Kornhauser, faculty chair of autonomous vehicle engineering at Princeton University, told the AP. "It’s not a game. This is serious stuff."
Meanwhile, people are mourning the victims.
"Dr. Varner was a tremendous human being who personally impacted many," Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
"We were saddened to hear of the death of one of our physicians over the weekend," U.S. Anesthesia Partners told Reuters. "Dr. Varner spent his life caring for others, and now we are focused on caring for his colleagues and family, helping them to cope with this sudden and unexpected loss."