US to probe Texas fatal crash that may have involved Ford partially automated driving system

[Mach1E]

That is my thought exactly, but honestly I strongly suspect that's indeed what happened. I noticed that he never responded to people who said, "I hope you're both alright."

Cars have reflectors in addition to lights. An alert driver should (hopefully) see the reflectors and take evasive action(s) such as braking and changing lanes. IIRC the OP in the other thread said he hit the stopped car at 70MPH, meaning that he either didn't slow at all (i.e., didn't see it), or had been traveling faster.

This is a tragedy regardless of the details and who is at fault. (I lost my mom in a car crash, so I get it.) But if this is the same guy as the is-this-totaled post, that's crazy.

We are all making assumptions, so I’ll make a simple one too.

We are talking about an interstate highway, near a major city, NOT late at night.

Likely lots of traffic.

If you’re going highway speeds, and ANY car in front of you saw the stopped car and changed lanes, you definitely wouldn’t see the stopped car before it’s too late.

I’ve hit road debris on the highway during the daytime while being completely alert for this exact reason. Someone in front changing lanes to avoid it and there you go.

Either way, we don’t know the circumstances except a few details.

Another detail- the Mach E driver isn’t in jail. If someone dies and you’re found at fault, that would be a different story for sure.

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[Space_Pony]

We are all making assumptions, so I’ll make a simple one too.

We are talking about an interstate highway, near a major city, NOT late at night.

Likely lots of traffic.

If you’re going highway speeds, and ANY car in front of you saw the stopped car and changed lanes, you definitely wouldn’t see the stopped car before it’s too late.

I’ve hit road debris on the highway during the daytime while being completely alert for this exact reason. Someone in front changing lanes to avoid it and there you go.

Either way, we don’t know the circumstances except a few details.

Another detail- the Mach E driver isn’t in jail. If someone dies and you’re found at fault, that would be a different story for sure.

How do you know he's not in jail. No response from him in over a week.

 

[nvabill]

This whole thread is really comical, who wants to call the NTSB and tell them they can stand down because you guys already solved the whole deal? ?

 

[SWO]

NTSB just wants to collect all the facts and see if there were any factors associated with the automation that contributed to or mitigated the crash. One question they may look at is if the car performed any emergency braking before impact. It may not have braked at all, which could be normal at that speed. They are just very interested in fatal crash data involving automated driving even if everything worked as designed.

I'm sure another bit of data the investigation will be interested in is whether the driver's foot was on the gas pedal at impact, since AEB won't engage in that circumstance.

 

[Mach1E]

How do you know he's not in jail. No response from him in over a week.

He edited his posts last night (deleted them on the other thread). ?‍

The issue with that is that since people quoted and responded, they didn’t even go away.

 

[4sallypat]

Personally, I think BC was not working correctly or was off.

Whenever I drive with BC on, even for a few seconds if my eyes drift off the road, the system will automatically tell me to take control.

 

[Just Lurking]

My parent live off of the exit where the accident happened. It's super dark on that stretch of the road as they are widening the highway; no shoulders just stone guardrails.

The most important thing to take away from this is
DON'T STOP YOUR Fn CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSTATE. I feel bad for the MME driver who's been put in this position.

See above. Losing total vehicle power in a stretch of highway with stone guardrails and zero shoulder is a nightmare situation. If you don't have enough momentum to carry you out of that stretch and to a shoulder, you are basically screwed. Only thing the driver didn't do is pull over to the slow lane pushed right up against the guardrail.

He edited his posts last night (deleted them on the other thread). ?‍

The issue with that is that since people quoted and responded, they didn’t even go away.

Probably finally talked to a lawyer who talked some sense into him.

 

[ArthurDOB]

How do you know he's not in jail. No response from him in over a week.

I would guess someone advised him that chatting about this in a forum was probably not the best idea, or perhaps he came to that conclusion on his own when he saw some of the replies to his initial thread.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

He edited his posts last night (deleted them on the other thread). ?‍

The issue with that is that since people quoted and responded, they didn’t even go away.

I noticed that too.

 

[Hammered]

He edited his posts last night (deleted them on the other thread). ?‍

The issue with that is that since people quoted and responded, they didn’t even go away.

Yes and no, his posts are his posts, your quotes of a post are fully editable.

This whole thread is really comical, who wants to call the NTSB and tell them they can stand down because you guys already solved the whole deal? ?

Really strange they're on it as it typically needs to be commercial / involve a lot of people. For a 2 vehicle incident that's a little out of the norm. Figure they'd be a little busy chasing down defective boeings right now.

 

[metfoo]

It’s likely this forum will get a subpoena to preserve logs, which will show he’s edited posts. These edits will likely be apart of a future court case. If I were the forum owners, I’d make sure I have an attorney, as this is likely to get more interesting in the coming weeks.

it’s hard to cover your digital footprints. The user in question is likely to find out the very hard way.

 

[Hammered]

It’s likely this forum will get a subpoena to preserve logs, which will show he’s edited posts. These edits will likely be apart of a future court case. If I were the forum owners, I’d make sure I have an attorney, as this is likely to get more interesting in the coming weeks.

it’s hard to cover your digital footprints. The user in question is likely to find out the very hard way.

If they were smart they wouldn't keep them any longer than they need to. There's nothing compelling someone to keep such records and it only creates a legal and financial burden moving forward.

 

[Mach1E]

It’s likely this forum will get a subpoena to preserve logs, which will show he’s edited posts. These edits will likely be apart of a future court case. If I were the forum owners, I’d make sure I have an attorney, as this is likely to get more interesting in the coming weeks.

it’s hard to cover your digital footprints. The user in question is likely to find out the very hard way.

I would put that under the “unlikely” category.

Yes, the posts are viewable. But the unlikely part is the subpoena.

Why? Because nothing points to the driver being at fault at the moment. That and I doubt the investigators are digging that deep. They would first have to subpoena the computer and phone of the driver and then do a deep dive.

Now if this was some drawn out murder trial situation…….anything you say and do can be used against you…….

 

[MustangLuvr]

Just going to put this here.

Although you may be tempted to just delete your social media accounts or delete any incriminating photos or posts from social media, you should talk to your attorney before you do so. Deleting the photos and posts, or deleting your entire account, could harm your case, too.

https://www.dougmurphylaw.com/how-social-media-use-can-complicate-dwi-defense

 

[metfoo]

I would put that under the “unlikely” category.

Yes, the posts are viewable. But the unlikely part is the subpoena.

Why? Because nothing points to the driver being at fault at the moment. That and I doubt the investigators are digging that deep. They would first have to subpoena the computer and phone of the driver and then do a deep dive.

Now if this was some drawn out murder trial situation…….anything you say and do can be used against you…….

the driver said he was using blue cruise, so I’m sure ford will look to protect their product. The government or the family of the deceased would also be interested in the posters comments as they implicate fords product.

In regards to maintaining the information, the forums database tracks changes. Unless they’re actively logging out changes after days (highly unlikely), that data is being preserved already. I would also assume the forums are backed up on some manner, which can be compelled during discovery.

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