The safety of self-driving auto technology has been called into question following a deadly crash that could have been caused by a faulty autopilot system on a Tesla vehicle. Last Friday, a 38-year-old resident of San Mateo crashed his Tesla Model X into a highway barrier, resulting in his death. Further investigations found that the car had been on Autopilot mode at the time of the crash. Even more damning to Tesla were reports from the driver’s family that he had specifically taken the vehicle in for work on the Autopilot system because it had turned towards the highway divider several times before.
Tesla’s stock price “fell 14.5% last week and is down 30% from its peak in June, just before the Model 3 went on sale,” reports LA Times. “A company with production problems like Tesla’s but with plenty of cash on hand could ignore financial market perturbations and focus on fixing what’s wrong. Tesla does not have plenty of cash.” This past Tuesday, Moody’s downgraded Tesla’s credit ratings as well.