Photo: Craig Adderley / Pexels
For: Real America News Updated 19 Jan 2022, 04: 06 AM EST
A Tesla driver involved in a fatal accident in California over two years ago , while using autopilot, was charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter.
The charges against the driver of the limousine service Kevin George Aziz Riad, of 27 years, represent the first felony charges in the US for a fatal accident
involving a driver who was using Tesla’s popular partially automated driving system.
Riyadh was allegedly behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S that went off a freeway in Gardena, a suburb of Los Angeles, ran a red light and hit a Honda Civic in December of 2015.
Two or Passengers in the Civic, Gilberto Alcázar López and María Guadalupe Nieves-López died in the accident
.
Los Angeles County prosecutors filed charges against Riyadh in October, though they only came to light last week.
The charges against the driver are the first felony charges in the United States for a fatal accident using Tesla’s popular partially automated driving system.
Other charges have been filed in the US involving automated driving systems, but the charges against Riyadh are the first related to the Tesla’s widely used autopilot technology.
Autopilot can control steering, speed and braking. It is estimated that 765,000 Tesla vehicles in the US are equipped with this technology.
The NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating numerous accidents involving autopilot.
Since autopilot accidents started, Tesla has updated the software to try to make it more difficult for drivers to abuse it.
Tesla has warned that the autopilot and a system more sophisticated “full self-driving” vehicles cannot drive themselves and that drivers must pay attention and be ready to react at any moment.
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