Two men were killed in the Woodlands, Texas after a Tesla they were traveling in crashed on Saturday and caught fire with neither of the men behind the wheel, according to the authorities said.
The crash took place in a residential area in the Woodlands.
Mark Herman, the Harris County Precinct 4 constable, said that physical evidence gathered from the scene and statements of witnesses show that no one was driving the vehicle at the time of the car crash.
The vehicle, a 2019 Model S, was running at a high speed around a curve at 11:25 p.m. when it went off the road about 100 feet and struck into a tree, Herman said.
The men were 59 and 69 years old. One was in the front passenger seat and one in the rear seat.
Right before the crash, the men’s wives observed them leave in the Tesla after they said they wanted to go for a drive and were talking about the car’s Autopilot feature.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said last month that it was investigating nearly two dozen crashes involving Teslas and maybe their use of Autopilot feature.
