Tesla driver charged with involuntary manslaughter after deadly Autopilot crash

Tesla’s autonomous driving system, Autopilot, has been involved in hundreds of accidents, some of them even fatal. Now a driver has been charged with involuntary manslaughter opening a hitherto closed door.

A Tesla driver has become the first person in the United States to be charged with involuntary manslaughter for a fatal accident in which the vehicle’s Autopilot mode was activated.

According to the police, the driver left a freeway in his Tesla Model S, ran a red light and collided with a Honda Civic at an intersection in Gardena, Los Angeles County, in late 2019.

The man and woman in the Honda Civic were killed. The driver of the Tesla and a passenger who was with him survived and were taken to hospital.

California prosecutors accused Kevin George Aziz Riad, the driver, in October last year and now we have learned that he is facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter and is out on bail after pleading not guilty.

Felony charges mark the first time a Tesla driver has been criminally prosecuted in the United States for an accident of a deadly car in which the Autopilot was activated.

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Autopilot is Tesla’s cruise control and is not a fully autonomous system, it only provides driver assistance. That is why the system requires the driver to have his hands on the wheel at all times.

In a similar case, Arizona prosecutors charged Rafaela Vasquez with negligent homicide in 2020, after she struck and killed a pedestrian who was crossing the road on a bicycle while testing Uber’s self-driving car software.

Texas police officers sued Tesla in 2021, accusing the automaker of deploying flawed safety features in its Autopilot software, after a Model X driver crashed into the rear of two parked police cars.

The Riyadh case, however, may demonstrate that people can be held criminally liable for accidents involving vehicles under semi-autonomous control.

According to US authorities, there is a third Tesla car involved in a fatal traffic accident caused by Autopilot mode.

Tesla has faced multiple federal investigations for everything from Autopilot crashes to worn-out memory chips.

Tesla has repeatedly warned its drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all times. while driving in Autopilot mode, the problem is that they keep calling their roadside assistance: full self-driving mode. And that doesn’t help.

Reference-computerhoy.com