Officials say no one was in the driver’s seat when a Tesla crashed into a tree in Woodlands, Texas on Saturday afternoon, bursting into flames and killing the two male occupants. According to authorities, the men’s women told investigators that minutes before the crash, the two had been arguing about the vehicle’s autopilot function before going for a walk. Physical tests indicated one man was in the passenger seat and the other in the back seat, officials said, although neither could be positively identified due to the duration of the fire. “It took four hours to put out a fire that would normally have taken a few minutes,” said Mark Herman, a District 4 agent in Harris County. Regulators have expressed alarm over the type of batteries used in Teslas, and have warned that they can make vehicle fires harder to put out. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is investigating about two dozen accidents involving Teslas that potentially use autopilot.
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