An Apple engineer who recently died in a crash of his Tesla Model X when it slammed into a concrete barrier had previously complained about Tesla’s “Autopilot” malfunctioning on that particular stretch of freeway, according to newly released NTSB documents.
KQED reports that an Apple engineer was recently killed when his Tesla Model X vehicle collided with a concrete barrier along the freeway, but there is now evidence that he had previously complained about the vehicle’s autopilot system malfunctioning on that same stretch of road. The engineer’s complaints were released in a trove of documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently.
The crash, which killed Walter Huang, 38, in March 2018 took place near Mountain View, California, and is being investigated by the NTSB. The board is also investigating a crash in Delray Beach, Florida, that happened approximately one year later in which another driver, Jeremy Banner, was killed.
The released documents show that Huang told his wife that the Autopilot system in his Tesla vehicle had previously veered his SUV toward the same barrier on U.S. 101 near Mountain View, the same area where he would later crash. In response to the NTSB’s questions relating to the crash involving Huang, the family attorney stated: “Walter said the car would veer toward the barrier in the mornings when he went to work.”
Records from the iPhone retrieved from the crash show that Huang may have been using the device before the accident, one transmission from the device reportedly happened just one minute before the crash. The full NTSB board is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Mountain View crash on February 25. At that time, it will determine a cause of the accident and make safety recommendations.
Breitbart News has reported on crashes involving Tesla cars since 2017, further information about these crashes can be found here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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