NTSB ‘Unhappy’ With Tesla For Releasing Information About Fatal Crash
Elon Musk defended the move, declaring ‘To do otherwise would be unsafe.’
The National Transportation Safety Board is "unhappy" that Tesla has released information about a fatal Model X crash that it is investigating, reports the Washington Post.
"Our next update of information about our investigation will likely be when we publish a preliminary report, which generally occurs within a few weeks of completion of field work,” NTSB spokesman Chris O’Neil said. The issue is that Tesla released its own information prior to NTSB completing its own investigation into the matter. The result of the investigation may or may not agree with Tesla's version of events.
Elon Musk took to Twitter on Monday to defend Tesla's early release of this information. He pointed out that as an advisory body, NTSB has no authority to tell Tesla what it can or can't tell, or when, regarding the crash. Tesla wants owners to feel safe using Autopilot, which appears to have been engaged at the time of the crash and feels that providing information as quickly as possible is key to that goal.
Although the immediate cause of the crash is still unknown, Tesla revealed Friday that this particular Model X had been involved in a crash before. A highway safety component known as the crash attenuator was not replaced after a previous crash in that location. Tesla believes that this is the reason the car was so badly damaged in this particular crash—a reason that has nothing to do with the semi-autonomous Autopilot system itself.
The Drive reached out to Tesla, but a spokesperson declined to comment.