Tesla was hit by severe criticism when a driver lost his life while the Model S was being driven in the Autopilot mode. However, this time, the EV is once again in the headlines for an entirely different reason.
Tesla Autopilot allegedly saved the life of a man who suffered from a pulmonary embolism. The Autopilot might have saved the life of the poor Missouri man by driving him to the hospital.
Joshua Neally of Missouri left his office in late July and started towards home, activating the Autopilot feature when he got to the highway. A couple of miles down the road, Neally felt an acute pain in his chest and called his wife.
He decided to check into the nearest emergency room and allowed the Autopilot to take over for the next twenty miles or so. A couple of miles from the hospital, Neally took over the wheel and guided the EV into the parking finally getting himself checked into the ER.
Neally remarked that a better course of action would have been to call the ambulance. He also acknowledges the risk to the other drivers on the highway when the pulmonary embolism occurred.
This incident might kill the doubts instilled by the loss of the life of the man involving Tesla Model S Autopilot. Other remarkable incidents whenTesla Autopilot saved lives of people involve stopping the EV for pedestrian and moving out of the path of the oncoming cars.
Neally trusted the car to the extent where he believed it would steer to the road-side if he had fallen unconscious. Albeit the negative publicity of the Autopilot due to unfortunate accidents, the improvements in this technology may save many lives in future by making it safer and better.