Federal gov't opens investigation into first known Tesla Autopilot fatality

The company reported on the incident in a blog post. On May 7, Ohio resident Joshua Brown, 45, was in the driver's seat of a Tesla Model S in Williston, Florida. The car's Autopilot was engaged when a tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of the electric vehicle. Brown was killed "when he drove under the trailer," the Levy Journal reported at the time."The After striking the underside of the trailer, the car then continued driving until it left the road, struck a fence, smashed through two other fences and struck a power pole. On Thursday, Tesla announced that the NHTSA had opened a preliminary evaluation on Wednesday into the performance of Autopilot in the crash. Following the company's standard practice, it had informed the federal agency of the accident immediately after it occurred. "Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.