Two men were killed after a Tesla vehicle authorities believe was operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashing into a tree Saturday night north of Houston.
One of the men was in the front passenger seat and the other in the back seat of the Tesla, which was traveling at high speed around a curve before colliding with a tree around 11:25 p.m. local time, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Va said Herman in an interview.
“Our preliminary investigation determines, but is not yet complete, that there was no one behind the wheel of this vehicle,” the constable said. “We’re confident of almost 99.9%.”
They needed about four hours of emergency assistance and about 32,000 gallons of water to put out the fire that engulfed the electric vehicle, Agent Herman said. High-voltage batteries like those used at Teslas can re-ignite after being damaged, even after firefighters put out a fire, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
As of Sunday, authorities were still investigating whether the front passenger’s airbag was deployed and whether the vehicle’s advanced driver assistance system was enabled at the time of the accident. Ni Tesla Inc. TSLA,
nor did the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the top U.S. auto safety regulator, respond to requests for comment.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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