Man with local ties killed in self-driving car crash

MURRYSVILLE, Pa. — A Tesla driver who was killed in a crash while using the car’s self-driving mode has ties to western Pennsylvania.

Joshua D. Brown, 40, graduated from Franklin Regional High School in 1994, according to Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE. He most recently lived in Canton, Ohio and was a former Navy SEAL. Brown became the first fatality using self-driving technology in the U.S. when his Tesla S sports car collided with a truck in Florida last month.

The car's cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer from a brightly lit sky and didn't automatically activate its brakes, according to government records obtained Thursday.

The government said it is investigating the design and performance of the system aboard the Tesla Model S sedan.

Brown credited his Tesla Model S Autopilot for saving him "from a side collision" with a boom lift truck in a YouTube post dated April 15. %

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"I actually wasn't watching that direction and Tessy (the name of my car) was on duty with autopilot engaged. I became aware of the danger when Tessy alerted me with the 'immediately take over' warning chime and the car swerving to the right to avoid the side collision," Brown wrote.

According to TribLIVE, he returned to western Pennsylvania this spring for a business-related trip to install wireless cameras at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Mill Run.  He was driving the Tesla.

"He took my daughter for a ride in it," operations manager Tracy Czambel told TribLIVE.

"If you have ever met someone who touched your life, he was that kind of person. He was always happy, very positive, very helpful. He just loved life," she said.

Cox Media Group