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Tesla blasts Fortune reports about fatal crash of Model S on autopilot
| MarketWatch | - |
In
a growing battle with Fortune, Tesla Motors Inc. published a blog post
Wednesday that denied the company knowingly withheld material
information from shareholders regarding a fatal collision of a Model S
using semiautonomous features. The post ...
Tesla blasts Fortune reports about fatal crash of Model S on autopilot
Bloomberg News
In a
growing battle with Fortune, Tesla Motors Inc. published a blog post
Wednesday that denied the company knowingly withheld material
information from shareholders regarding a fatal collision of a Model S using semiautonomous features.
The post, headlined “Misfortune,” is a response to allegations by Fortune that Tesla withheld material information in staying quiet for eight weeks about the Florida crash, which is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A Tuesday article put forth the theory that the information would have been material ahead of a stock offering by the electric automobile manufacturer, and Chief Executive Elon Musk publicly disagreed.
On Wednesday, a follow-up article noted that Tesla
TSLA, +0.70%
had put a disclaimer in filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding potential
liability from the autopilot system, which helps Tesla’s cars stay in
highway lanes along with other self-driving features. Fortune presented
the disclaimer as proof that Tesla considered such an event to be
important, writing, “Apparently, a crash related to Tesla’s autopilot
feature was material, before it wasn’t.”
Tesla, however, pointed out in its blog post that the actual wording of the disclaimer refers to liability claims regarding the autopilot feature, and no such claims have been filed as of yet.
“Fortune’s article is fundamentally incorrect,” the post reads.
Tesla laid out the timeline of its investigation after the May 7 collision, which killed Tesla enthusiast Joshua Brown. According to the blog post, the company informed the NHTSA of the crash on May 16, but wasn’t able to actually inspect the car physically until May 18, the day of the $1.5 billion stock offering. The company said it did not finish its review of the car’s data until the end of May.
Tesla also boldly stated that the autopilot system was not at fault for the wreck, which the NHTSA is still investigating.
“To be clear, this accident was the result of a semi-tractor trailer crossing both lanes of a divided highway in front of an oncoming car,” the company’s bog post reads, later adding, “In the moments leading up to the collision, there is no evidence to suggest that Autopilot was not operating as designed and as described to users.”
The blog post also mimics Musk’s earlier point that Tesla stock traded up the day after the disclosure was eventually made, using that as evidence that Tesla investors do not consider the crash a material issue.
“The bottom line is that
Fortune jumped the gun on a story before they had the facts,” the post
concludes. “They then sought wrongly to defend that position by plucking
boilerplate language from SEC filings that have no bearing on what
happened, while failing to correct or acknowledge their original
omissions and errors.”
Another collision, involving a Tesla Model X SUV came to light Wednesday, this one in Pennsylvania. While police told the Detroit Free-Press that the driver was using the autopilot feature, Tesla said Wednesday it had yet to determine if that was the case.
The post, headlined “Misfortune,” is a response to allegations by Fortune that Tesla withheld material information in staying quiet for eight weeks about the Florida crash, which is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A Tuesday article put forth the theory that the information would have been material ahead of a stock offering by the electric automobile manufacturer, and Chief Executive Elon Musk publicly disagreed.
Tesla, however, pointed out in its blog post that the actual wording of the disclaimer refers to liability claims regarding the autopilot feature, and no such claims have been filed as of yet.
“Fortune’s article is fundamentally incorrect,” the post reads.
Tesla laid out the timeline of its investigation after the May 7 collision, which killed Tesla enthusiast Joshua Brown. According to the blog post, the company informed the NHTSA of the crash on May 16, but wasn’t able to actually inspect the car physically until May 18, the day of the $1.5 billion stock offering. The company said it did not finish its review of the car’s data until the end of May.
Tesla also boldly stated that the autopilot system was not at fault for the wreck, which the NHTSA is still investigating.
“To be clear, this accident was the result of a semi-tractor trailer crossing both lanes of a divided highway in front of an oncoming car,” the company’s bog post reads, later adding, “In the moments leading up to the collision, there is no evidence to suggest that Autopilot was not operating as designed and as described to users.”
The blog post also mimics Musk’s earlier point that Tesla stock traded up the day after the disclosure was eventually made, using that as evidence that Tesla investors do not consider the crash a material issue.
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Another collision, involving a Tesla Model X SUV came to light Wednesday, this one in Pennsylvania. While police told the Detroit Free-Press that the driver was using the autopilot feature, Tesla said Wednesday it had yet to determine if that was the case.
