A 63-year-old man driving a 2023 Tesla struck a parked vehicle before crashing through a barricade and onto the sidewalk where it struck a pedestrian, according to authorities. The vehicle hit the side of a building before crashing on the next corner (at East 46th Street and Vanderbilt Ave. in Manhattan), on Feb 1.
The driver remained at the scene, and no arrests were made at the time. He claimed the vehicle was “on autopilot,” but this could not be confirmed because the incident remains under investigation, an NYPD spokesperson added.
The 31-year-old male pedestrian was taken to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue in stable condition, police said. A 24-year-old male passenger was inside the Tesla at the time of the crash.
The accident occurred as Tesla began recalling nearly all of the vehicles it has sold in the US (around 2.2 million vehicles), due to small warning lights on the instrument panel that experts say pose a risk of increased crash incidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been intensifying scrutiny on the electric vehicle maker; an investigation into Tesla steering problems has been upgraded to an engineering analysis. In a separate recall, over 1.6 million Teslas exported to China are being recalled for problems with automatic assisted steering and door latch controls.
Sources: Express, The Mirror
