A Tesla Model S reportedly on "Autopilot" smashed into the back of a fire truck parked at a freeway accident scene in California Monday morning, authorities said.
The union representing Culver City firefighters whose truck was hit around 8:30 a.m. on Interstate 405 in Culver City said on Twitter that the Tesla driver said he had been using Tesla's Autopilot system, which essentially lets the car drive itself.
The California Highway Patrol and Culver City Fire Department confirmed that he southbound Tesla had struck the fire truck, but could not immediately confirm whether the vehicle had been on Autopilot.
The fire truck had been parked in the left emergency lane and carpool lane, blocking the scene of a previous accident, with a CHP vehicle behind it and to the side, said Ken Powell, a Culver City Fire Department battalion chief.
Both emergency vehicles had their lights flashing, Powell said.
The Tesla was significantly damaged, and the fire truck was taken out of service for body work, Powell said.
Had any firefighters been at the rear of the truck rather than in front attending to the earlier crash, there "probably would not have been a very good outcome," Powell said.
"It was a pretty big hit," Powell said.
Tesla, after the incident, said Autopilot is "intended for use only with a fully attentive driver." The Model S owner's manual has numerous warnings that attention to the road is vital while using Autopilot and other Tesla semi-autonomous driving functions.
In 2016, a Model S driver using Autopilot was killed when his car crashed into a semi truck in Florida.
Federal road-safety officials blamed the fatal crash on the truck's driver for failing to yield while entering a roadway, on the Tesla driver for relying too heavily on Autopilot, and on Tesla. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that Autopilot contributed to the crash by allowing lengthy disengagement from the driving process, on a roadway unsuitable for the semi-autonomous-driving system.
Also, the board said, the Autopilot technology that monitors whether a driver has their hands on the steering wheel isn't a good way to tell if the driver is paying attention.
