Two men died after a Tesla vehicle that authorities believe was operating without anyone in the driver’s seat crashing into a tree Saturday night north of Houston.
One of the men was in the front passenger seat and the other was in the back seat of the Tesla, which was traveling at high speed along a curve before hitting a tree around 11:25 p.m. local time, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said in an interview.
“Our preliminary investigation determines – but is not yet complete – that no one was behind the wheel of that vehicle,” said the police officer. “We are almost 99.9% sure.”
It took about four hours and about 32,000 gallons of water to put out the fire that engulfed the electric vehicle, Officer Herman said. High-voltage batteries, such as those used in Teslas, can re-ignite after being damaged, even after firefighters put out a fire, according to the National Transportation Safety Committee.
As of Sunday, authorities were still investigating whether the front passenger’s airbag was deployed and whether the driver’s advanced assistance system was activated at the time of the crash. Neither Tesla Inc. TSLA,
nor did the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the top U.S. regulatory authority for road safety, respond to requests for comment.
An extended version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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