Tech Trend 247

In a bizarre twist of fate, the first known fatality involved with a Tesla Model S with Autopilot engaged was the same man who posted a video to YouTube back in early April showing what he described as the semi-autonomous driving system avoiding a collision.

Joshua Brown, the man the Florida Highway Patrol identified as the victim of the fatal Tesla Model S crash on Wednesday, had previously posted a video of his Model S narrowly being sideswiped by a truck. At the time, his car had Autopilot engaged. Brown alleged that the system saved the car, since he "wasn't watching that direction."

Here's Brown's full description of the incident:

Tesla Model S autopilot saved the car autonomously from a side collision from a boom lift truck. I was driving down the interstate and you can see the boom lift truck in question on the left side of the screen on a joining interstate road. Once the roads merged, the truck tried to get to the exit ramp on the right and never saw my Tesla. I actually wasn't watching that direction and Tessy (the name of my car) was on duty with autopilot engaged. I became aware of the danger when Tessy alerted me with the "immediately take over" warning chime and the car swerving to the right to avoid the side collision. 

You can see where I took over when there's a little bit of blip in the steering. Tessy had already moved to the right to avoid the collision. I was not able to slow down even more due to the heavy traffic (cars were behind me). Once I got behind him I slowly added more room between us until he exited. I was not tail gating after the incident.

It was a mistake on the other driver's part. He did not even know I was there until I honked my horn. There was a group of women in the black sedan to my left and they went nuts about the guy and what he did (all kinds of gesturing in their car). Once I was beside the truck as it slowed down on the ramp, the guy gestured a "sorry!" I gave him, "it's okay" wave.

Intriguingly, although Brown uploaded 24 Tesla videos to his YouTube channel, the one avoiding the side collision was the last.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Are you a current Model S or Model X owner and wish you could try out Autopilot before you shell out for it? Well, there's good news. Tesla will now give you can a free one-month trial of the semi-autonomous system.

Now, of course, there's a bit of a catch to all of this. All Model X and recent Model S vehicles left the factory with Autopilot hardware. If the owner wanted it activated at the time of purchase, they paid $2,500 for the tech suite.

If they wish to have it activated after the one-month free trail, however, the price jumps to $3,000 — $500 more than if they'd ordered it before testing it.

Certainly, 500 extra big ones is a small price to pay for such a robust system on a car that costs more than $100,000 to begin with. Still, it's not nothing.

If you do opt to try it out, please don't do crazy things with it, as some Tesla owners have so far. It could ruin semi-autonomous tech back by a decade.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.