Texas local authorities claim two people died when a self-driving car crash into a tree and burst into flames, Houston television KPRC 2 reported.
The real cause of the crash is still unknown but it is under investigation.
Firefighters had to use up to 30,000 gallons of water to try to quench the fire for about four hours. The car made Tesla, kept reigniting its battery. However, authorities tried hard to reach Tesla to get advice on how best to put out the fire but it is not clear if they got any response at all.
A tweet revealed what kind of Tesla car crashed into the tree, calling it a Tesla Model S. The tweet also affirmed that it was a driverless car and that investigators were sure no one was in the driver seat during the time of the accident.
There were reports that the was moving at a high speed and then it failed to make a turn, then drove off the road into a tree. One of the men who died was in the front passenger seat, while the other was in the back seat, according to KHOU.
A policeman spokesman also claimed that no one was driving the fully-electric 2019 Tesla at the time of the crash. Did the car have its autopilot driver-assist system activated? No one could really tell.
Out of the 23 or thereabouts crashes Autopilot-related crashes, this is the first fatal crash where there was no driver in the driver’s seat. But Tesla had constantly warned that Autopilot is not an autonomous driving system and that it needs constant while in use on the road.