UK: Six injured as Tesla Autopilot car rams into school's parking area

At least six persons, including five children, sustained injuries when an autopilot Tesla car crashed in a school car park on Monday in southern England. The South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAMB) said that the condition of a child was very critical whereas at least three were seriously injuried, as per reported by the Telegraph. The Sussex police informed that one child has been taken to hospital by air ambulance with serious injuries, while others were also rushed to the hospital by road. They also said that as this is an ongoing matter no further information is available as of now. The students reportedly belonged to Ardingly College which is among the country's top independent schools for boys and girls aged between 13 and 18. 

Tesla's Autopilot feature has been in question earlier too

Traffic was severely affected following the accident as the whole of College road leading to the accident site was completely blocked off to cars and pedestrians only allowing emergency services to work. Following the accident, the car, Teska Inc Model 3, was removed from the site on the back of a lorry, whereas, it was still not ascertained whether a driver was behind the wheel at the time of the collision or not. The safety of Tesla's Autopilot feature has been questioned before. Although the company says that cars using Autopilot have fewer accidents per mile than cars do not make the vehicle autonomous and it requires active driver supervision.   

An insight about Tesla 

Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company whose current products include electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, as well as other related products and services. It began production of its first car model, the Roadster, in 2009,  followed by the Model S sedan in 2012, the Model X SUV in 2015, the higher volume Model 3 sedan in 2017, and the Model Y crossover in 2020. The Model 3 is said to be the world's all-time best-selling plug-in electric car, with more than 8,00,000 delivered through December 2020. Meanwhile, Tesla's global vehicle sales were 4,99,550 units in 2020, an almost 36 per cent increase over the previous year. It is to be noted here that in 2020, the company surpassed the 1 million mark of electric cars produced. 

(Image Credits: AP/Representative)