A Tesla employee and Elon Musk superfan may be the first person to die due to the company’s self-driving technology, a study has found.
Hans von Ohain, 33, was killed in a fiery wreck in Colorado in 2022 after his Tesla veered violently off a winding country road.
Although the young father had been drinking before the fatal crash, detectives expanded their investigation into the death after it became clear it was no ordinary case of drunk driving.
“Regardless of how drunk Hans was, Musk has claimed that this car can drive itself and is essentially better than a human being,” von Ohain’s widow Nora Bass told the newspaper. WashingtonPost.
“We have been sold a false sense of security.”
Hans von Ohain (left), 33, died in a fiery wreck in Colorado in 2022 after his Tesla veered violently off a winding country road
Von Ohain’s Tesla Model 3 plowed into a tree as he and a friend returned from a round of golf, killing the young father in a fireball while his passenger narrowly escaped with his life
The vehicle is said to have swerved erratically earlier in the day, which Von Ohain reportedly ‘happens every now and then’ on his electric car
Tesla has promoted its self-driving technology, Full Self-Driving, as the solution to the 40,000 annual traffic deaths in the US.
But the company insists it is still in the testing phase and is constantly learning to deal with new road conditions, including the winding country roads on which Von Ohain died.
The 33-year-old, a former Marine who was reportedly a passionate fan of his boss Elon Musk, was returning from an afternoon of golf with a friend when the crash occurred.
His passenger Erik Rossiter, who narrowly escaped the wreck with his life, said the car had been driving erratically on its own hours earlier, causing the recruiter to grip the steering wheel several times.
“The first time it happened, I thought, ‘Is that normal?’
“And he said, ‘Yes, that happens every now and then.’
Von Ohain’s Tesla Model 3 plowed into a tree just hours later, killing the young father in a fireball captured in horror police footage.
In a 911 call heard by the Washington Post, Rossiter told 911 that Von Ohain “used an automatic driving feature on the Tesla” that “simply ran off the road.”
It is striking that the Full Self-Driving system is different from regular automatic driving and is intended to fully navigate from point A to B – while automatic driving is only intended for situations such as on a highway.
Rossiter told researchers he believes they were using Full Self-Driving, which would make Von Ohain’s death the first ever caused by the experimental technology.
Von Ohain was described as a “devoted father to his little Ray” (pictured together), and a “wonderful husband, dedicated Marine and best friend to many”
While the autopsy revealed that von Ohain had been drinking, his widow Nora Bass (left) wondered whether Tesla’s automated navigation was to blame. “Regardless of how drunk Hans was, Musk has claimed that this car can drive itself and is essentially better than a human,” she said. ‘We were sold a false sense of security’
Car manufacturers have been required to report accidents involving driver assistance systems since 2021, and more than 900 accidents involving Teslas have been recorded in that time.
At least 40 resulted in serious or fatal injuries, according to the Washington Post analysis.
Although Autopilot was the most involved, Von Ohain may have been a rare case of a Full-Self Driving crash, with another driver reportedly blaming the technology for an eight-car pileup on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2022.
After Von Ohain’s horror crash, an autopsy revealed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.26 – more than three times the legal limit.
While investigators may have concluded that his intoxication impaired his ability to drive the car, Colorado State Patrol officers also looked at the vehicle’s navigation systems.
Tesla has rolled out Full Self-Driving to about 400,000 vehicles, tweeting in December that it will only help keep drivers safer on the road because “the more automation technology offered to assist the driver, the safer the driver and other road users.” ‘
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