Tesla driver killed in Autopilot crash was speeding, report says

Joshua Brown, the Tesla driver who on May 7 died in a crash in Florida while the car's Autopilot was engaged was speeding, according to a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) preliminary report.

This revelation may not surprise many people. The Model S is often billed as one of the sturdiest cars ever built. Not only does it have a five-star crash safety rating, but also its structure is so strong that it broke some of the crash-testing gear in 2013.

So for the top of the car to be sheered off as it was in the fatal Florida crash (even considering that it had collided with a tractor trailer) suggested that the Model S must have been moving at fast speeds. (After colliding with the truck, Brown's Model S continued down the road and eventually struck a power pole and split in half before coming to rest.) Read more...