A report from China this week alleges that the first fatal accident involving a Tesla on Autopilot mode had occurred outside Hong Kong in January this year, when a Model S ran into a street sweeper at full speed.
"Long term this is going to hurt the interests of the company and hurt the interests of an entire industry, if a company of our reputation will continue to be associated with this type of pushing the envelope in terms of safety", he said.
The split came at the end of July after a Tesla vehicle using Mobileye's EyeQ3 sensor technology was involved in a fatal crash in Florida in May. Until an official investigation is concluded, we can't know for sure what happened, but based on past situations, we'd say the crash is consistent with previous Autopilot behavior.
Tesla is updating Autopilot to make it more hard for drivers to ignore warnings to keep hands on the wheel and other changes that Elon Musk said would probably have prevented the fatality in May. Mobileye supplies the EyeQ3 technology used in Tesla's Autopilot system.
Tesla's Autopilot is one of the smartest cruise control features on cars.
In China, the world's biggest auto market, regulators directed automakers in July to suspend road testing of self-driving cars while the government craft policies governing their use.
More news: Giles, Astros lose 3-2 to Rangers
On May 7, a Tesla driver was killed in a collision with a truck when using the autopilot technology in Florida.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk last week said the carmaker will shortly enable new software that will be able to better recognize obstacles using the onboard radar system, a "dramatic improvement" that would have likely prevented the Florida crash. The driver-assist feature draws road data from radar, cameras and a dozen sensors around the vehicle. The signals and images are cross-checked to minimize error.
The first Tesla Autopilot-related crash fatality reportedly occured in China in January, five months before the widely covered incident in the United States in May.
"We have tried repeatedly to work with our customer to investigate the cause of the crash, but he has not provided us with any additional information that would allow us to do so", it said. Reuters reports that Gao's family launched a lawsuit in Beijing in July against both Tesla and the dealer that sold the auto.
The spokesperson declined to answer further questions.
The video shows the Model S striking the street sweeper which is partially parked in the left lane, though it is impossible to tell whether the brakes were applied in the seconds prior to the crash despite appearances to the contrary. The vehicle ahead shifted one lane to the right to avoid a stopped or slow-moving truck in the lane.
