The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has ruled that Tesla’s Autopilot system was not responsible for the fatal 2021 Tesla Model S crash in Texas.

This week, NTSB investigators released their final report, which found that the driver was driving the car before the collision with the tree and that he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs:

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the Spring, Texas, electric vehicle crash was the driver’s excessive speed and failure to control his car, due to impairment from alcohol intoxication in combination with the effects of two sedating antihistamines, resulting in a roadway departure, tree impact, and postcrash fire.”

The April 17, 2021 crash in Spring, Texas made headlines after investigators discovered an empty driver’s seat at the scene. The two men who died in the crash were not wearing seat belts; one of them was in the front passenger seat and the other in the back. The crash scene raised suspicions that Tesla’s Autopilot software may have been used, but somehow without the driver present.

In a phone call later that month, Tesla’s vice president of automotive development, Lars Moravy, said that company officials who inspected the crash site determined that the steering wheel was “deformed.” The condition of the steering wheel indicated that a driver was in the driver’s seat when the Model S hit the tree, contradicting the claims of local authorities.

Tesla Autopilot found not to have caused fatal Texas crash in 2021

NTSB investigators are now confident that there was a passenger in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash and that autopilot was not in use. Their findings include surveillance footage showing two men entering a 2019 Tesla Model S P100D and getting into the front seats of the car before driving away. In addition, data obtained by Tesla showed that seat belts were on before the crash and that the driver had moved into the back seat after the crash.

More information was stored in the Model S recorder that was used in the NTSB report. Five seconds before hitting the tree, the Model S accelerated from 62 to 108 km/h in 2 seconds and was traveling at a speed of 92 km/h before coming to a complete stop. It was also determined that the seat belts were activated and the airbags deployed. As for the fire, it started due to damage to the front part of the battery module.

The NTSB’s conclusion stated that the driver’s speed and his alcohol intoxication, as well as the intake of two sedative antihistamines, caused him to leave the roadway, collide with a tree, and catch fire after the crash. As for Autopilot, it was not used, as during testing the system was programmed not to go faster than 48 km/h on the street the Tesla was last driven on.

While there are ways to trick Autopilot into activating without a person in the driver’s seat, it doesn’t look like it’s what happened in this crash. In addition, the Tesla owner did not have the more advanced Full Self-Driving package installed.