June 22, 2017—A driver who died while driving Tesla on Autopilot was warned seven times to put his hands back on the wheel before he hit a truck, according to CNN.
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on the deadly crash also found that Johsua Brown had his hands on the wheel of the Tesla (TSLA) Model S for 25 seconds out of 37 minutes that the car was on autopilot.
The crash, near Gainesville, Fla., in May 2016, drew attention because of the questions it raised about the safety of self-driving cars.
Dave Hobbs, a field instructor and program developer for Delphi Product & Service Solutions, said that repair shops have an opportunity in cases like this to educate drivers on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which he spoke about at the Automotive Service Association’s inaugural Connected CARS training event in May 2017.
"Any time the vehicle comes in because there’s a light that comes on and says the adaptive cruise control isn't working, consumer education that needs to be applied by the service advisor," he said. "The service advisor needs to be savvy and give good information to then relay that on the R.O. for the technician."
An earlier investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the crash was not the result of any defect in Tesla's autopilot feature, which can keep a car in a lane and brake to avoid traffic and other obstacles.
In this case, the car hit the trailer of a truck that pulled across its lanes of traffic at an intersection.
