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Please don't jump out of your car and dance to Drake, NTSB pleads
Drake might be the king of memes, but the latest, for his track In My Feelings, has attracted the wrong kind of viral attention. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is asking fans to please, please, not do that #InMyFeelings challenge that involves jumping out of a moving car and dancing. On top of that, drivers should definitely not film said challengers, as that's equally stupid and in violation of pretty much all the distracted driving laws.
NTSB: Model S battery caught fire twice after Florida crash
It's not unheard of for cars to catch fire in a crash, but there are now instances of Tesla cars' batteries reigniting well after the fact. As part of a preliminary report on a Model S crash in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, NTSB investigators revealed that a piece of the EV's lithium-ion pack reignited twice despite firefighters dousing it with water and foam. It first reignited when crews were removing the car from the crash scene, and again when it arrived at a storage yard.
Tesla involved in fatal crash sped up before hitting road barrier
The NTSB released its preliminary investigation report concerning the fatal Tesla crash that occurred on March 23, 2018 in Mountain View, California today. The agency does note that the report is subject to change.
NTSB's preliminary report on Uber crash focuses on emergency braking
Today, the NTSB released preliminary findings for an accident back in March, in which a self-driving Uber vehicle collided with a pedestrian. The pedestrian was killed. "At 1.3 seconds before impact, the self-driving system determined that emergency braking was needed to mitigate a collision," the release says. "According to Uber emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. The vehicle operator is relied on to intervene and take action. The system is not designed to alert the operator." "Over the course of the last two months, we've worked closely with the NTSB," an Uber spokesperson told Engadget. "As their investigation continues, we've initiated our own safety review of our self-driving vehicles program. We've also brought on former NTSB Chair Christopher Hart to advise us on our overall safety culture, and we look forward to sharing more on the changes we'll make in the coming weeks."
Tesla's key safety representative leaves for Waymo
Tesla's executive team isn't done with turmoil following the loss of its Autopilot chief and its engineering lead's sabbatical. The electric car maker's "primary technical contact" with American safety regulators, Matthew Schwall, has left the company to join Waymo. The Alphabet-owned firm didn't specify his role, but a Wall Street Journal source said he would tackle a "variety" of self-driving safety issues.
Tesla ends formal agreement to cooperate with NTSB on Model X crash
Tesla has been in an uncomfortable spotlight recently following the fatal crash of a Model X on March 23rd. Tesla's Autopilot system was on in the car, and it steered the vehicle straight into a highway barrier, killing the driver. Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, Tesla has withdrawn from a formal cooperation agreement with the National Transportation Safety Board over the company's public release of crash details.
Federal investigators 'unhappy' Tesla revealed crash details
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is "unhappy" that Tesla released information about the fiery March 23rd crash that killed a driver. In a blog post last Friday, Elon Musk said that the Autopilot was active when the Model struck a highway barrier and caught fire. He also noted that according to vehicle data, driver Wei Huang didn't have his hands on the steering wheel for six seconds prior to the crash into a disabled safety barrier.
Tesla: Autopilot was engaged in fatal Model X crash
After a fiery crash in Mountain View, CA last week killed the driver of a Tesla Model X, the company provided an update on the incident with a blog post. It did not name the driver, identified by ABC 7 News as Apple engineer and former EA programmer Walter Huang, while confirming that its Autopilot feature was engaged at the time of the crash.
Officials probe first possible drone-related aircraft crash in the US
US authorities have started investigating what could be the first drone-related aircraft crash in the US, according to Bloomberg. Pilots have been reporting more and more drone sightings these past few years based on data from the FAA, but most of those incidents have been harmless. That might not be the case this time around. The pilot and student flying the helicopter that crashed in South Carolina on Wednesday told investigators they saw a small drone appear in front of them while practicing maneuvers 50 feet above the tree line.
Pilot error caused fatal Icon A5 plane crash, NTSB says
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the Icon A5 crash that killed two Icon employees was caused by pilot error and not a problem with the aircraft. The final determination was a "failure to maintain clearance from terrain while maneuvering at a low altitude," the report states. The situation was caused by a "mistaken entry into a canyon surrounded by steep rising terrain while at a low altitude for reasons that could not be determined."
Facebook's internet drone crash-landed because it was windy
Facebook celebrated the first full test flight of its solar-powered internet drone, Aquila, in July, but things didn't go as smoothly as they could have. The drone completed a 96-minute flight in Yuma, Arizona, but it ended up crash-landing because of a structural failure in the right wing, according to today's report from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB announced in November that it would investigate the accident.
Facebook drone failure prompts a US investigation
Facebook may have been beaming with pride when it completed the first full test of its Aquila internet drone on June 28th, but that "structural failure" near the end? US officials aren't so happy about that. The National Transportation Safety Board has revealed that it's investigating the incident, which it considers "substantial" enough to be treated as an accident. The exact circumstances aren't available, but there wasn't any damage on the ground.
Tesla crash prompts NTSB investigation into autonomous driving
Investigations are already underway regarding the role of Autopilot in the fatal Tesla Model S crash on May 7th, but the National Transportation Safety Board wants to take things one step further. It's launching its own investigation into the tragedy to see whether or not it reveals any underlying problems with autonomous driving as a whole. Is current technology truly safe, for example? And is existing regulation up to the job of covering that technology?
Undersea robots find key clue to a mysterious shipwreck
Robots just helped shed light on a maritime tragedy. The US Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board and Woods Hole Oceanographic have used both an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and a fiber-controlled craft to find the voyage data recorder of the El Faro, a cargo ship that sank near the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin last October. That's no mean feat when its remains are 15,000 feet deep, and the recorder is roughly the size of a coffee can. The recovery should not only help explain the exact circumstances of the El Faro's final moments, but provide some closure to the families of the 33 crew members that lost their lives.
Congress pushes deadline to make trains safer to 2018
If you travel by train or live near tracks, Congress is not doing you any favors. Yesterday it passed a bill extending the deadline (see Section 1302) for the implementation of the potentially life-saving Positive Train Control (PTC) braking control system on all trains by three years to December 31, 2018. PTC slows trains that are traveling too fast based on their location and could stop deadly derailments. It acts as a backup for distracted engineers that have failed to slow their locomotives when approaching curves or have ignored signals. According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), up to 70 percent of rail operators would not meet the safety standard by the original December 31, 2015 deadline.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash was due to co-pilot error (updated)
After nearly 9 months of investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board has an official explanation for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash. As suspected, the accident happened when the co-pilot triggered the "feathering" system (moving the tail wings to increase drag for reentry) well below the intended Mach 1.4 speed -- the premature resistance led to the suborbital craft breaking up and plummeting into the Mojave Desert. More details are forthcoming, but Virgin Galactic says that it welcomes the findings. Hopefully, the lessons learned prevent future accidents and keep private spaceflight on track. Update: The NTSB has published the full ruling, and says that there also wasn't enough done to either prevent this mistake or educate pilots about what would happen. Even the FAA is partly to blame, since it didn't check to make sure that the requirements behind a hazard waiver were implemented properly. In other words, the co-pilot's slip-up was the last piece of a larger puzzle. [Image credit: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu]
Authorities want collision avoidance tech to be a standard car feature
A lot of automakers have been developing crash avoidance systems for years, but the technology hasn't made it to most vehicles' feature list yet. The National Transportation Safety Board wants to change that: in a report released today, the agency has recommended for collision avoidance tech to be a standard in cars and all other passengers and commercial vehicles. In addition, it's asking federal regulators (aka the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to test and rate the crash avoidance systems developed within the past 20 years. The suggestion's already facing opposition from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, though. Its vice president, Gloria Bergquist, told AP that the tech should remain optional, so buyers can decide which driver assist product they want.
Google's solar plane crashed earlier this month in New Mexico
According to Bloomberg Business, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident wherein Google's solar-powered Solara 50 plane reportedly crashed shortly after takeoff. The event occurred on May 1st at a private airfield outside of Albuquerque and no injuries were reported. Recent Google acquisition Titan Aerospace built the 50-meter-wide (164 ft) drone as part of an ambitious Google plan to deliver global internet connectivity via stratospheric drones.
Selfies may have led to a deadly airplane crash
Taking selfies while you're driving any moving vehicle is a bad idea, especially in an aircraft -- and unfortunately, those snapshots may have cost two air travelers their lives. The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that a double-fatality Cessna 150 crash in Colorado "likely" occurred because the pilot distracted himself with cellphone self-portraits shortly after takeoff. Action camera footage from a flight just minutes earlier showed the man taking selfies -- investigators believe it's no big stretch to suggest that he repeated this mistake on his final voyage.
Boeing's Dreamliner batteries caught on fire for a few reasons
Curious about what the official word regarding the Boeing Dreamliner's faulty battery is? Of course you are. The National Transportation Safety Board says that the reason for the non-fatal fire was due to "deficiencies in the design and certification process," and has a few fingers to point. The board says that Boeing itself is at fault, calling its safety assessments of the lithium-ion units insufficient. Yuasa, the battery manufacturer, isn't free from blame either. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Yuasa's production process apparently allowed for defects that could cause short-circuiting in the battery's internal cells, and the final battery design was actually different than the one tested and certified. The NTSB goes on to call out the Federal Aviation Administration for its lack of oversight regarding the outsourcing of components in the Dreamliner as well.
