Automobiles today come with a wide range of safety features, going far beyond seat belts and airbags. Many vehicles have automatic emergency braking, warnings if you stray from your lane, and backup cameras. While these safety features have undoubtedly kept many an accident from happening, we haven’t quite reached the realm of self-driving cars just yet. One auto manufacturer, Tesla, has a driver assist system that it calls an ‘autopilot,’ but that has left some drivers confused and thinking that the car can actually drive itself. Tesla asserts that someone should always remain in control of the vehicle.
The Drive reports on a man who was arrested after crashing his Tesla at 128 mph into an Infiniti SUV.
Jose Manuel Soto was arrested on three charges of reckless driving and causing serious bodily injury.
The accident happened on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami Beach on October 21st at about 1:05 a.m. Soto ran a red light while driving his Tesla Model S at 128 mph and crashed into an Infiniti SUV.
Three people inside the Infiniti SUV suffered from serious, life-threatening injuries. One of them was in a coma, another suffered from multiple fractured bones and a collapsed lung, and another also suffered from a traumatic brain injury.
The Infiniti was making a legal U-turn at the time of the crash. Soto reportedly only hit the brakes 1.5 seconds before impact.
A Twitter discussion regarding whether the car was using the autopilot system at the time prompted a response from Elon Musk. He reminded people that the autopilot system’s top speed is well below the speed in which Soto was traveling at the time.