DETROIT – California prosecutors have brought two counts of vehicle manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot Running a red light, hitting another car, causing 2 deaths in 2019.
The defendant appears to be the first person charged with a felony in the United States for a fatal crash involving a driver using a partially automated driving system. Los Angeles County prosecutors filed the charges in October, but they only came to light last week.
The driver, Kevin George Aziz Riad, 27, has pleaded not guilty. Riad, a limousine service driver, is on free bail while the case is pending.
Abuse of Autopilot, can control steering, speed and brake, has happened many times and is Subject matter investigated by two federal agencies. Filing charges in the California crash could inform drivers using systems like Autopilot that they cannot rely on them to control their vehicle.
The criminal charges are not the first involving autonomous driving systems, but they are the first involving widely used driving technology. Authorities in Arizona filed a 2020 negligent homicide charge against a driver Uber has been hired to participate in the full test self-driving car on public roads. Uber car, an SUV with the backup driver on the train, hit and killed a pedestrian.
In contrast, Autopilot and other driver assistance systems are widely used on roads around the world. An estimated 765,000 Tesla vehicles are equipped with this feature in the United States alone.
In the Tesla crash, the police said a Model WILL was traveling at high speed when it left the freeway and ran a red light in the suburbs of Gardena, Los Angeles and crashed into a Honda Civic at an intersection on December 29, 2019. Two people were inside civic, Gilberto Alcazar Lopez and Maria Guadalupe Nieves-Lopez died at the scene. Riad and a woman in the Tesla were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The incriminating documents make no mention of Autopilot. But National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company that sent investigators to the crash, confirmed last week that Autopilot was in use in Tesla at the time of the crash.
The Riad’s defense attorney did not respond to requests for comment last week, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to discuss the case. The Riad’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 23.
NHTSA and National Traffic Safety Board was examined the misuse of Autopilot by drivers, whose overconfidence and inattention have been blamed for numerous crashes, including fatal ones. In an incident report, NTSB calls this misuse “automation complacency”.
Organ said that in a 2018 crash in Culver City, California, In which a Tesla caught fire, the design of the Autonomous Driving system “allowed the driver to leave his driving duties.” No one was injured in that collision.
Last May, a California man was arrested after officers noticed his Tesla was traveling down the highway with the man in the back seat and no one behind the wheel.
Teslas already using Autopilot also have hit a highway barrier or a trailer is crossing the road. NHTSA has dispatched teams to investigate 26 Autopilot-related crashes since 2016, involving at least 11 deaths.
Messages were left seeking comment from Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department. Since the Autopilot crashes started happening, Tesla has updated the software to try to make it harder for drivers to abuse it. It also tries to improve Autopilot’s ability to detect emergency vehicles.
The company has said that Autopilot and more complex “Full Self-Driving” systems cannot drive themselves and that drivers must be attentive and ready to react at any time. “Full self-driving” is being tested by hundreds of Tesla owners on public roads in the US
Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who studies autonomous vehicles, said it was the first case in the US he was aware of that included a serious criminal charge in a fatal crash. people involved in partially automated driving assistance systems. Tesla, he said, could be “criminally, civilly or morally reprehensible” if found to have put a dangerous technology on the road.
Donald Slavik, a Colorado lawyer who served as a consultant in automatic technology The lawsuits, including many against Tesla, say he is also unaware of any previous felony charges filed against a US driver using partially autonomous driver technology linked in connection with a fatal accident.
The families of Lopez and Nieves-Lopez have sued Tesla and Riad in separate lawsuits. They have accused the Riad of negligence and accused Tesla of selling faulty cars that can cause sudden acceleration and lack an effective automated emergency system. brake system. A joint test is expected in mid-2023.
In court documents, Lopez’s family alleges that the vehicle “accelerated suddenly and unintentionally to an excessive, unsafe and uncontrollable speed”. The family of Nieves-Lopez further asserted that Riad was an unsafe driver, with multiple moving faults on record, and was unable to control the high-performance Tesla.
Separately, NHTSA is investigating dozens of accidents in which a Tesla on Autopilot crashed into several parked emergency vehicles. In the collisions under investigation, at least 17 people were injured and one person was killed.
When asked about the manslaughter charges against the Riad, the agency released a statement saying none of the vehicles for sale could be self-driving. And whether or not cars are using a partially automated system, the agency says, “every vehicle requires a human to be in control at all times.”
NHTSA added that all state laws hold drivers accountable for the operation of their vehicles. While automated systems can help drivers avoid collisions, the agency says the technology must be used responsibly.
Rafaela Vasquez, driver in Uber’s self-driving test vehicle, charged in 2020 with negligent homicide After an SUV fatally crashed a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix in 2018. Vasquez pleaded not guilty. Arizona prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against Uber.
Dazio reports from Los Angeles. New York-based AP News researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.
