Two Killed After Driverless Tesla Crashes into a Tree in Carlton Woods

Two people in the subdivision of Carlton Woods Creekside, were killed late Saturday evening around 11:25 p.m. in a driverless crash involving a Tesla. The exact location of the crash within the prestigious gated community was on Hammock Dunes Place.

According to Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman, the 2019 Tesla Model S was traveling at a high speed, and approached a curve at some point, where the Tesla didn’t curve with the road resulting in the vehicle navigating off course and crashing into a tree. The vehicle then burst into flames, deputies at the scene said.

Because the batteries of the vehicle kept reigniting, it took firefighters over 23,000 gallons of water and more than four hours to extinguish the fire, according to Montgomery County Police Reporter.

Crews fighting the fire even called Tesla to ask how to put the fire out, Constable Mark Herman said.

The oddest part about this incident is, that when the bodies of the two victims were discovered after firefighters finally put out the flames, one victim was in the passenger seat, and one victim was in the back seat. It’s imperative to remember, that although Tesla vehicles have auto-pilot functionality, the vehicles do not have level 5 autonomy yet, where they can completely drive themselves at all times. Someone still needs to be sitting behind the steering wheel as an co-pilot in case something goes wrong.

Herman said, “They are positive, that with the physical evidence and the things of that nature on the scene, the position of the bodies and the trajectory of the impact, they are 100% certain that no one was in the driver seat driving that vehicle at the time of impact.”

At this point, the only two things about the victims confirmed is that one of the victims was 59, while the other was 69 years old.

See a video from the scene by Scott J. Engle (Montgomery County Police Reporter) below.