NTSB: Driver In Fatal Tesla Crash Was Playing Video Game

The National Transportation Safety Board says the driver of a Tesla SUV who died in a Silicon Valley crash two years ago was playing a video game on his smartphone while his vehicle was being controlled by a partially automated driving system.

Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the start of a hearing Tuesday that systems like Tesla’s Autopilot cannot drive themselves yet drivers continue to use them without paying attention.

“If you own a car with partial automation, you do not own a self-driving car,” Sumwalt said in opening statements.

“This means that when driving in the supposed ‘self-driving’ mode, you can’t read a book, you can’t watch a movie or TV show, you can’t text and you can’t play video games.”

The board will determine a cause of the crash at the hearing and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again. Sumwalt says government regulators have ignored the board’s previous recommendations for measures to prevent these crashes.