Elon Musk hits back at safety board over fatal crash

Tesla boss Elon Musk has hit back at a US safety agency after it criticised his car firm for disclosing detailed information about a fatal crash involving one of its vehicles.

A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the organisation was “unhappy with the release of investigative information by Tesla”.

Responding to a tweet on the story by Tesla’s official enthusiasts’ club, Musk wrote: “Lot of respect for NTSB, but NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] regulates cars, not NTSB, which is an advisory body.

“Tesla releases critical crash data affecting public safety immediately & always will. To do otherwise would be unsafe.”

The American company shared details of last month’s crash in California, which saw a Model X hit a concrete lane divider while its Autopilot feature was engaged. The driver, 38-year-old Wei Huang, died in the incident, which happened on March 23.

In a blog post, it confirmed that Autopilot was active at the time of the impact, and said the Apple software engineer “had received several visual and one audible hands-on warning earlier in the drive, and the driver’s hands were not detected on the wheel for six seconds prior to the collision”.

It added: “The driver had about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider with the crushed crash attenuator, but the vehicle logs show that no action was taken.”

Tesla blamed the severity of the crash on the fact that an impact reduction barrier attached to a concrete lane divider had been damaged in a previous accident and not replaced.

On March 18, Herzberg was crossing a four-lane street in Tempe, Arizona, when the Volvo XC90 operated by Uber failed to spot her and stop in time. The “driver”, who is required to sit behind the wheel to take over in emergency situations, had been looking down at a screen in the seconds before the crash.

The company, which is best known for its ride-hailing app, has removed its self-driving vehicles from the roads while an investigation takes place.