02/20/2020 - 16:33
- Clarín.com
- Cars
The semi-autonomous driving system of Tesla, one of the most innovative and avant-garde car brands on the planet, became news again.
The Model X is Tesla's SUV. At the time of the accident, both vehicles were driving with the Autopilot activated. (Photo credit: Mirrorpix)
Although it is an advanced driving assistance system, the effectiveness of the Autopilot, as it is called, has been questioned on several occasions due to different traffic accidents involving vehicles of the brand.
This time, the story was another. Because the system saved the lives of two families on a route in southern English England, in the middle of a severe storm. They did not know each other. The only connection between them was that each one moved in a Tesla Model X.
Laurence Sanderson, along with his wife and three children, drove to the city of Dorset when an enormous 400-year-old tree unexpectedly fell in front of him, obstructing the route.
At that same moment, when the death was a few meters away, the emergency brakes of the Tesla Model X, valued at $ 110,000, were automatically activated.
"I was driving carefully when suddenly the tree came over us. Luckily the Autopilot function was activated, because if a second more passed we would have died. The car certainly saved our lives," Sanderson emphasized to the English medium The Mirror.
The crash occurred on a route in southern England, near the city of Dorset. (Photo credit: Mirrorpix)
Although the vehicle hit the fallen tree, the timely reaction of the Tesla Autopilot allowed the crash to not be so strong, and that the five occupants of the vehicle left the vehicle without a scratch.
The funny thing about the case was that on the other side of the route, coincidentally, another Tesla Model X was in which three people went and also ended up hitting the tree.
"We were returning home when I saw a flash of the power line that illuminated the tree. We stopped suddenly. There was a loud crack and then the sound of metal on metal. I expected to turn around and see my girlfriend and her mother pierced by the branches , but incredibly that was not the case. Both were fine, only with pain in the neck as a product of the whiplash. It was a miracle that we all survived, "said Josh Whitelock, driver of the other Tesla.
Whitelock said that he helped them out of the car, and that he ran to help those who had collided in the opposite direction. "The trunk of the vehicle was covered by the branches, but I quickly recognized that luckily it was another Tesla Model X. Today I can say that thanks to the Autopilot eight people are still alive"
Thus were the two Model X that hit the fallen tree. The eight people traveling in both cars were unharmed. (Photo credit: Mirrorpix)
The Autopilot has 8 external cameras, a radar, 12 ultrasonic sensors and an electronic exchange that receives all the information monitored and transmits it to the different active safety systems of the vehicle.
The system recognizes everything around it as the vehicle advances, activating the brakes automatically when it detects a possible collision.
