Elon Musk denies Tesla’s Autopilot caused crash that killed grandmother
Elon Musk denies Tesla’s Autopilot caused crash that killed grandmother
埃隆·马斯克否认特斯拉自动驾驶系统导致致死车祸，受害者为一名祖母
A few days after a Tesla plowed through a Texas home and killed a grandmother, the family sued the carmaker, alleging that the Model 3’s automated assist mode was defective. In a complaint filed this week in Harris County District Court, Jennifer Barbour, the daughter of 76-year-old Martha Avila, and Barbour’s husband Justin confirmed they were seeking more than $1 million in damages following their sudden and tragic loss. 在一辆特斯拉冲入德克萨斯州一处民宅并导致一名祖母身亡几天后，受害者家属起诉了这家汽车制造商，声称该 Model 3 的自动辅助驾驶模式存在缺陷。本周在哈里斯县地方法院提交的诉状中，76 岁的玛莎·阿维拉（Martha Avila）的女儿詹妮弗·巴伯（Jennifer Barbour）及其丈夫贾斯汀（Justin）确认，在经历这场突如其来的悲剧后，他们正寻求超过 100 万美元的赔偿。
After the crash, the driver, Michael Butler, who is also a named defendant in the lawsuit, told police that the automated driver-assist feature was engaged when he lost control of the car. Cops told Ars on Monday that they’re still investigating whether the feature was in use and confirmed that Butler was not intoxicated and has been cooperating with police. 事故发生后，驾驶员迈克尔·巴特勒（Michael Butler，也是本案的被告之一）告诉警方，他在失去车辆控制权时，自动驾驶辅助功能处于开启状态。警方周一向 Ars 表示，他们仍在调查该功能当时是否确实在使用，并确认巴特勒并未酒驾，且一直配合警方调查。
Tesla disputes that its “Full Self Driving” feature is to blame for the crash. A doorbell camera video shared by The New York Times showed the car slamming into the house at a high speed, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed in a post on X is a sign that the technology didn’t cause the crash. “FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high-speed crash!” Musk wrote. 特斯拉否认其“全自动驾驶”（FSD）功能应为此次事故负责。《纽约时报》分享的一段门铃摄像头视频显示，该车以极高的速度撞向房屋。特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克在 X 上发文称，这恰恰证明该技术并非事故起因。马斯克写道：“FSD 在社区街道行驶时速度很慢，而这是一起高速撞车事故！”
Tesla’s vice president of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, went further than Musk to cast doubt on the family’s claims. Without sharing evidence, he accused Butler of causing the crash. “In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100 percent of the accel pedal in this residential area,” Elluswamy said. “They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.” 特斯拉人工智能软件副总裁阿肖克·埃卢斯瓦米（Ashok Elluswamy）比马斯克更进一步，对受害者家属的指控表示怀疑。在未提供证据的情况下，他指责巴特勒导致了事故。“在这种情况下，驾驶员在住宅区将油门踩到底，手动覆盖了自动驾驶系统，”埃卢斯瓦米说，“他们在撞车时速度达到了每小时 73 英里，甚至在撞车后仍踩着油门。”
However, the family laid out two theories in their lawsuit about how FSD may have malfunctioned, at least in part, to cause the crash. The first focused on a defect known as “Sudden Unintended Acceleration,” or SUA, which the family alleged Tesla knows has caused “numerous fatalities and injuries” but has not fixed. SUA occurs when “components of the vehicle require additional power” and the draw on the battery causes “significant spikes in the system,” their lawsuit explained. These voltage surges from the battery can be dangerous, causing the inverter to “incorrectly interpret that the accelerator pedal has been pressed” and causing the car to rapidly accelerate to an “extremely dangerous speed,” the family said. 然而，受害者家属在诉讼中提出了两种理论，解释了 FSD 可能在某种程度上发生故障并导致事故。第一种理论关注的是被称为“突然意外加速”（SUA）的缺陷，家属声称特斯拉明知该缺陷已导致“多起死亡和伤害事故”，却始终未予修复。诉状解释称，SUA 发生在“车辆组件需要额外电力”时，电池的电力抽取会导致“系统出现显著峰值”。家属表示，电池产生的这些电压浪涌可能非常危险，导致逆变器“错误地解读为加速踏板已被踩下”，从而使车辆迅速加速到“极其危险的速度”。
The second theory suggests that because Tesla stripped its “vehicles of critical obstacle-detection hardware” during a global chip shortage, Butler’s Model 3 simply didn’t register the home “directly in its path” at the end of the street. “Defendant Butler was operating the Vehicle in a reasonably foreseeable manner, with Tesla’s Autopilot and/or Full Self-Driving system engaged, when the Vehicle failed to detect the end of the street and crashed directly into Plaintiffs’ home and/or experienced Sudden Unintended Acceleration causing it to launch into Plaintiffs’ home,” the lawsuit said. 第二种理论认为，由于特斯拉在全球芯片短缺期间剥离了其“车辆的关键障碍物检测硬件”，巴特勒的 Model 3 根本没有识别出街道尽头“正前方”的房屋。诉状称：“被告巴特勒在特斯拉自动驾驶和/或全自动驾驶系统开启的情况下，以合理可预见的方式操作车辆，但车辆未能检测到街道尽头，直接撞向原告的房屋，和/或经历了突然意外加速，导致其冲入原告家中。”
The Barbours hope a jury will find Tesla guilty of putting defective cars on the road without adequately ensuring public safety. If Tesla and Butler lose, they could be ordered to help the family pay for Avila’s medical expenses and funeral costs, as well as other damages the family suffered, including mental anguish and loss of inheritance. 巴伯一家希望陪审团能裁定特斯拉有罪，指控其在未充分确保公共安全的情况下将有缺陷的车辆投放市场。如果特斯拉和巴特勒败诉，他们可能被要求赔偿阿维拉的医疗费和丧葬费，以及家属遭受的其他损失，包括精神痛苦和继承权损失。
Family demands Tesla preserve all evidence
家属要求特斯拉保留所有证据
On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed to Ars that it is also investigating the crash. That extra scrutiny could help the Barbours support their claims that Tesla failed to properly design Autopilot and FSD features, test for proper obstacle detection, eliminate SUA, or “implement adequate driver-engagement monitoring.” 周一，美国国家公路交通安全管理局（NHTSA）向 Ars 证实，该机构也正在调查这起事故。这种额外的审查可能有助于巴伯一家支持他们的主张，即特斯拉未能正确设计自动驾驶和 FSD 功能、未能进行适当的障碍物检测测试、未能消除 SUA，或“未能实施充分的驾驶员参与监控”。
So far, cops have “found no evidence of a mechanical malfunction,” a Houston area news outlet reported. But the family’s attorney, Chris Adkins, told the outlet that the family is determined to hold Tesla accountable to ensure no other families endure a similar loss. “They’re really focused on getting to the truth and figuring out what happened and how it happens so they can prevent it from happening to anyone else again,” Adkins said. 据休斯顿地区一家新闻媒体报道，到目前为止，警方“尚未发现机械故障的证据”。但受害者家属的律师克里斯·阿德金斯（Chris Adkins）告诉该媒体，家属决心追究特斯拉的责任，以确保其他家庭不会遭受类似的损失。“他们真正关注的是查明真相，弄清楚发生了什么以及它是如何发生的，这样他们就能防止类似事件再次发生在任何人身上，”阿德金斯说。
In the past, NHTSA “has received more than a dozen reports of Teslas slamming into parked emergency vehicles while Autopilot was active,” the lawsuit noted. Pointing to that track record, the family alleged that Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot have “a well-established inability to properly detect stationary objects.” The lawsuit also cited a 2023 Washington Post analysis of government data that “identified at least 17 fatal incidents linked to Tesla’s Autopilot,” as well as a Post report saying that: 诉状指出，过去 NHTSA “已收到十几起关于特斯拉在自动驾驶开启时撞上停放的应急车辆的报告”。基于这一记录，家属声称特斯拉的 FSD 和自动驾驶系统“在正确检测静止物体方面存在公认的无能”。诉状还引用了《华盛顿邮报》2023 年对政府数据的分析，该分析“确定了至少 17 起与特斯拉自动驾驶相关的致命事故”，并引用了《华盛顿邮报》的一篇报道称：
Tesla has a documented history of losing, withholding, or making it difficult for attorneys and other interested parties to obtain the comprehensive electronic data generated and stored in its vehicles when they are involved in severe collisions—a practice that compounds the danger Tesla’s defective systems create by obstructing accountability after crashes occur. 特斯拉有据可查的历史表明，当其车辆发生严重碰撞时，该公司经常丢失、隐瞒或阻碍律师及其他相关方获取车辆生成并存储的全面电子数据——这种做法阻碍了事故发生后的问责，加剧了特斯拉缺陷系统所带来的危险。
To ensure that Tesla maintains evidence the family believes will prove their claims, they’ve demanded that Tesla preserve all the Model 3’s component parts, its “black box” data, and its Autopilot and FSD system data, logs, and telemetry. Additionally, they want all sensor and camera data maintained, as well as any other related electronically stored information. Perhaps most importantly, the family demanded that “as critical evidence,” the car itself must be “securely maintained and preserved in its post-collision condition for inspection and use in this litigation.” 为了确保特斯拉保留家属认为能证明其主张的证据，他们要求特斯拉保留该 Model 3 的所有零部件、“黑匣子”数据，以及自动驾驶和 FSD 系统数据、日志和遥测信息。此外，他们还要求保留所有传感器和摄像头数据，以及任何其他相关的电子存储信息。或许最重要的是，家属要求作为“关键证据”，车辆本身必须“在碰撞后的状态下得到妥善维护和保存，以供本案检查和使用”。
Family thanks first responders
家属感谢急救人员
Still in mourning, the family took time this week to thank the first responders who tried to save Avila’s life. After the crash, the grandmother was “pinned to the wreckage,” the lawsuit said. First responders managed to extract her and tran… 尽管仍处于悲痛之中，家属本周还是抽出时间感谢了试图挽救阿维拉生命的急救人员。诉状称，事故发生后，这位祖母被“困在残骸中”。急救人员设法将她救出并转运……