From BodyShop Business and aftermarketNews staff reports
Property Casualty 360 reported that Pennsylvania State Police have cited the driver of a Tesla Motors sport utility vehicle with careless driving involving a July 1 crash.
Michigan driver Albert Scaglione, 77, suffered injuries when his 2016 Tesla Model X SUV struck a concrete median on a Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford County and rolled onto its roof, coming to rest in the middle of the roadway.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that it is “collecting information” from state police, the automaker and the driver to ascertain “whether automated functions were in use at the time.” The Detroit Free Press quoted a police officer who said the driver told him the so-called Autopilot system was engaged when the accident occurred. Click here to read the full story.
In a separate report issued yesterday by Reuters, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is said to have tweeted a statement indicating that the Pennsylvania crash was not related to software. The Reuters report centered on a letter that the chairman of the U.S. Senate committee that oversees auto safety issues wrote to Musk on Thursday, asking the automaker to brief the committee on a separate fatal crash that occurred on May 7 crash, which is said to have involved Tesla’s Autopilot software.
