---
title: "NHTSA Closes Investigation into Fatal Tesla Model S Autopilot Crash; No Recall Issued"
description: "Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to speak about the agency's findings."
date: "2017-01-19"
modified: "2017-01-19"
authors:
  - name: "Aaron Brown"
    job_title: "Staff Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/aaron-brown"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/7026/nhtsa-closes-investigation-into-fatal-tesla-model-s-autopilot-crash-no-recall-issued"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Autopilot"
  - "crashes"
  - "Electric Vehicle"
  - "luxury"
  - "model s"
  - "News"
  - "sedan"
  - "Tesla"
---

# NHTSA Closes Investigation into Fatal Tesla Model S Autopilot Crash; No Recall Issued

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/01/gettyimages-630307982.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Regulators with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shuttered a six-month investigation digging into the operations of[ Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot functions](<https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2016/INCLA-PE16007-7876.PDF>) without issuing a recall Thursday.

The investigation was opened on June 28th after [40-year-old Joshua Brown was killed](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4249/tesla-autopilot-crash-victim-joshua-brown-was-an-electric-car-buff-and-a-navy-seal>) inside of his Tesla Model S on May 7th when his car drove directly into the side of a tractor-trailer at [74 miles per hour in a 65-mph speed zone](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4578/the-tesla-model-s-in-the-fatal-autopilot-crash-was-speeding>) on a highway in Williston, Florida. Data collected from the wrecked car showed that its Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer lane-keeping self-driving functions were in use at the time of impact, and no efforts were made by the driver or the car to slow down or avoid the crash.

In a statement released with the closed investigation, the NHTSA said that it did not find any evidence of a defect that would require Tesla to issue a safety recall of its cars. The report noted that Tesla's Automatic Emergency Braking technology is "not designed to reliably perform in all crash modes, including crossing path collisions."

In a blog post on Tesla's website following the accident, the company wrote that the Autopilot system couldn't see "the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter Thursday to share the NHTSA's findings.

https://twitter.com/_/status/822128741228756992

https://twitter.com/_/status/822129092036206592

After the Florida crash came to light, several other [close-call incidents and crashes](<https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=tesla%20autopilot%20crash%20site%3Athedrive.com>) that were allegedly caused by the self-driving software found their way to the Internet. In September, Tesla unveiled several updates to its semi-autonomous Autopilot software that could potentially help curtail distracted driving when the system is engaged.

The full report from the [NHTSA can be found here](<https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2016/INCLA-PE16007-7876.PDF>).

## Author
Aaron was previously a contributing writer with Jalopnik and has also written for Business Insider covering cars. When he's not in the office writing the news, you'll probably find him thrashing a beater car around a RallyCross.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/aaronmaxb>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/aaronmaxb>)