Assisted driving technology has advanced significantly in recent years, and Tesla’s Autopilot is one of the most prominent examples of this innovation. Although it is a system designed to make the driving experience safer and more relaxed, some people tend to attribute responsibility for any incident on the road to it.
A recent example occurred in Melbourne, Australia, where Sakshi Agrawal, the driver of a Tesla Model 3, hit a nurse while trying to overtake a tram. The woman, however, initially blamed the Autopilot system for the accident. Ultimately, it has been discovered that this is not true.
The accident occurred in the early morning of March 22, 2022, when Nicole Lagos, the nurse involved, was crossing Wattletree Road to catch a tram. The police investigation and analysis of the vehicle’s telemetry system showed that the autopilot was not activated in the moments before the crash, as the driver had stated.
In fact, the vehicle detected the presence of Lagos as a vulnerable road user and tried to warn of the potential danger, but the brakes were not applied and, in addition, the car accelerated after the impact, reaching 78 km/h.
During the court proceedings, defense lawyer Nicholas Papas KC admitted that his client had lied about activating Autopilot and argued that Agrawal had simply tried to overtake the tram without slowing down. “What he did was try to overtake the tram… The reality is that he was trying to rationalize his own behavior, trying to explain the inexplicable and how he could do something like that,” Papas explained.
Finally, after two years of legal wrangling and on the eve of what was to be a trial, Agrawal changed his plea to guilty. It is expected that the sentence, scheduled for May 10, 2024, can close this painful chapter for both the victim and the parties involved in this event.
