In November of last year Casey Speckman and Kevin McCarthy died in a horrific car crash. The accident occurred in Mr. McCarthy’s 2015 Model S Tesla. Ms. Speckman, who was driving the car, as reports state had a very high blood alcohol level, appeared to be speeding, swerved to miss a car going the wrong direction, crashed and died in a fire so dangerous firefighters were concerned for their and others well-being as well as their inability to reach the fire as they would have liked. (Ms. Speckman’s father has publicly stated that he believes if his daughter was in a different car she would have survived the crash). Tesla announced that it could not get data on the crash from the car because of the condition of the car. Regarding the battery fire they said the car had to be going excessively fast and that fires in cars that use gasoline are worse.

While the events could be exactly as they first appear and these two unfortunate people made a bad a series of bad decisions I would like to posit a possible alternative scenario and then ask a series of questions I believe Tesla and relevant industry as well as government agencies should investigate and answer.

What if these two people realized they should not be driving, chose to use the Tesla’s autopilot to get them safely home and something malfunctioned? Something possibly caused by the wrong way driver? For example what if the sensor systems priority and probability filter had issues with conflicting data caused by the wrong way car and/or it’ coming right at them with the headlights on? (In the fatal Joshua Brown crash Telsa agreed that was caused by the sun shining on the trailer and the system, which got a radar upgrade right after, thought the trailer side was the sky. It not only kept driving it went 9mph over the speed limit). 

I realize the car is in beta test. And that the small print and NHTSA said it is not a full autopilot. The problem is the average person doesn't get that. DoT and the German government have the same opinion. Even Musk's own videos show him hands free and doing goofy things to tout it. If this were something less than "autopilot" I would not be making this point. At some point this is going to require a legal decision. I bet though if you took a survey of Tesla owners and non-owners most folks in both groups would think autopilot can drive you. Why would Tesla use that term and not "driver assist" while it is in beta? I believe it is because he wants to create Guinea pigs to get him hands off data by building false confidence in the system. (6 Billion miles need to be driven, by the public Guinea pigs, so Tesla can collect it's data - http://gas2.org/2017/02/14/fleet-learning-capacity-key-teslas-lead-self-driving-race/) I think Musk's desire to lower accident rates overall have evolved into an avoidable and harmful ends justify the means scenario. He has no issue putting a few at risk to help the many. Even though the use of the public as Guinea pigs is necessary. There is a far safer and faster way to get this data).

Questions

What if they tried to use Tesla’s autopilot to safely get them home? Was the Tesla car’s autopilot engaged at all? We know Tesla’s official statement was that the car was damaged so badly that the data could not be “transmitted”. As I understand it data is routinely transmitted to Tesla while the cars are operating. How often does that occur? What information is transmitted? Is there no data for this situation? If not why? What data does exist? For that day? That week? If critical data is not transmitted many times a second and the data in the car is not well protected how is anyone going to know what happened in these cases involving autonomous cars? Shouldn’t having a “black box” or transmitting often be regulated? Especially when Tesla is using the public and people like my daughter and Mr. McCarthy as beta test subjects? Isn’t the type of data that should be gathered here among the most critical to get?

Can we get access to Tesla’s design, software and testing data to see if this scenario was covered? Can we arrange a test to reconstruct the scenario with other Model S cars? Especially given the Brown accident in Florida. Did the Tesla system get confused by a car coming down a road in the wrong direction? Or by a car with headlights glaring coming right at it?

Did her car receive updates after the Brown accident? Is a car coming right at another with headlights on in any way similar to the glare on the trailer that caused the Brown accident? Is there proof the Brown accident situation was actually fixed?

Why did the battery compartment break apart? Are there weak spots in the titanium battery shields put on the cars after accidents in 2013? Are there better methods for encapsulating them? Or even a method to self-extinguish? Were crash tests done of scenarios close to this? If so what were the results? If not – why? If this fire had not occurred what is the likelihood that my daughter and Mr. McCarthy would have lived? Would a gas fueled car of similar design have caught fire and if it had would it not have been easier to escape from and put out? Looking at crash data over time what are the odds this happens again? Aren’t there many scenarios that could rupture that battery unit?

I am requesting help in answering these questions from the following organizations. I think it is all of our best interest and the public’s best interest we all know the answers to these questions.

o  Tesla

o  NHTSA

o  Department of Transportation

o  Bureau of Consumer Protection

o  The relevant District Attorney’s

o  The Police

o  Relevant driverless or autonomous government, watchdog and interest groups

o  The lithium-ion battery industry


Bio - I was a former engineer with Lockheed Martin and a whistleblower

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4468728


Relevant links

McCarthy/Speckman Accident

http://fox59.com/2017/02/08/crash-report-driver-of-tesla-involved-in-fiery-crash-had-bac-nearly-twice-the-legal-limit/

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=speckman&oq=speckman&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i53.1668286.1669697.0.1671874.8.6.0.2.0.0.238.711.3j2j1.6.0...0.0...1ac.1.XnACsrLmGlo

Firefighters Concern with Battery Fire

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=speckman&oq=speckman&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i53.1668286.1669697.0.1671874.8.6.0.2.0.0.238.711.3j2j1.6.0...0.0...1ac.1.XnACsrLmGlo

Musk demonstrating Autopilot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDv9TEXtHzw

The Joshua Brown Tragedy

https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2017/jan/21/tesla-crash-report-blames-human-error-this-is-a-missed-opportunity

Article on Tesla knowing when accidents are your fault

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601657/tesla-knows-when-a-crash-is-your-fault-and-other-carmakers-soon-will-too/

 My articles

Driverless vehicles are not being designed or tested properly. The public should not be used as Guinea pigs. There is a far safer and faster route.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nhtsa-should-shut-down-all-auto-piloted-self-driving-cars-dekort?trk=mp-author-card

 NHTSA made two fatal mistakes regarding Tesla “Autopilot” and Joshua Brown’s death

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nhtsa-made-two-fatal-mistakes-regarding-tesla-autopilot-dekort?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish