THE first death of a motorist in an autonomous vehicle occurred in May but was only reported in June after Tesla made the news public that an owner had died in its Model S.The driver had engaged the autopilot function in his car in the US but a truck pulled out across the path of the car and the man lost his life after the car drove underneath the trailer. Tesla advised the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US and released a statement advising that the autopilot system was still in its beta testing phase and required human supervision.Tesla stated: "What we know is that the vehicle was on a divided highway with autopilot engaged when a tractor trailer drove across the highway perpendicular to the Model S. Neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the...
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