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		</div><p>The first person to die in a US crash involving a car in self-driving mode was the tech-savvy 40-year-old owner of a Tesla Model S who nicknamed his car &#8220;Tessy&#8221; and praised its sophisticated &#8220;Autopilot&#8221; system.</p>
<p>Joshua Brown, of Canton, Ohio, died in the May 7 crash in Williston, Florida, when his car&#8217;s cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer rig from a brightly-lit sky and did not automatically activate its brakes, according to US government records and a Tesla statement.</p>
<p>Just one month earlier Mr Brown, who owned a technology company, credited his 2015 Tesla with preventing a crash on an interstate highway. The government said it was investigating the design and performance of the Tesla system.</p>
<p>Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the tractor-trailer and owner of Okemah Express, said the Tesla driver was &#8220;playing Harry Potter on the TV screen&#8221; and driving so quickly that &#8220;he went so fast through my trailer I didn&#8217;t see him&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road,&#8221; Mr Baressi said from his home in Palm Harbour, Florida.</p>
<p>He acknowledged he could not see the movie, only heard it, but Tesla Motors said it was not possible to watch videos on the Model S touchscreen.</p>
<p>Brown&#8217;s published obituary described him as a member of the Navy SEALs for 11 years and founder of a wireless Internet network and camera system company. In Washington, the Pentagon confirmed Brown&#8217;s work with the SEALs and said he left the service in 2008.</p>
<p>In April, Mr Brown said his car avoided a crash when a commercial truck swerved into his lane. He published a video of the incident online.</p>
<p>Tesla noted that drivers must manually enable the Autopilot system, saying: &#8220;Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert.&#8221;</p>
<p>As the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation, Tesla founder Elon Musk expressed condolences in a tweet for the &#8220;tragic loss&#8221;.</p>
<p>Preliminary reports indicate the crash occurred when Mr Baressi&#8217;s rig turned left in front of Mr Brown at a junction of a divided highway where there were no traffic lights, the NHTSA said. Mr Brown died at the scene just south west of Gainesville.</p>
<p>By the time firefighters arrived, the Tesla wreckage &#8211; with its roof sheared off &#8211; had come to rest hundreds of feet from the crash site.</p>
<p>Tesla said in a statement that this was the first known death in more than 130 million miles of Autopilot operation.</p>
<p>Before Autopilot can be used, drivers have to acknowledge that the system is an &#8220;assist feature&#8221; that requires both hands on the wheel. Drivers are told they need must be prepared to take over controls, the statement said.</p>
<p>Autopilot checks to make sure a driver&#8217;s hands are on the wheel, and it gives visual and audible alerts if they are not. It also will gradually slow the car until the driver responds, the statement said.</p>
<p>The system allows the Model S to steer itself within a lane, change lanes and speed up or slow down based on surrounding traffic or the driver&#8217;s set speed. It can automatically apply brakes and slow the vehicle.</p>
<p>Tesla said Autopilot &#8220;results in a statistically significant improvement in safety&#8221;.</p>
<p>Mr Brown&#8217;s death comes as the NHTSA is taking steps to ease self-driving cars on to US roads, an anticipated sea-change in driving where Tesla has been a leader. Self-driving cars are expected to eliminate human errors that are responsible for 94% of crashes.</p>
<p>It is not the first time automatic braking systems have malfunctioned and several have been recalled to fix problems.</p>
<p>Last year Ford recalled 37,000 F-150 pick-ups because they braked with nothing in the way. The company said the radar could become confused when passing a large, reflective truck.</p>
<p>The technology relies on multiple cameras, radar, laser and computers to sense objects and determine if they are in the car&#8217;s way.</p>
<p>Systems like Tesla&#8217;s, which rely heavily on cameras, &#8220;aren&#8217;t sophisticated enough to overcome blindness from bright or low contrast light,&#8221; said Mike Harley, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book.</p>
<p>Mr Harley said more deaths could be expected as the autonomous technology was refined.</p>
<p>Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said the crash was a huge blow to Tesla&#8217;s reputation.</p>
<p>&#8220;They have been touting their safety and they have been touting their advanced technology,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This situation flies in the face of both.&#8221;</p>
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