Tesla Responds to FSD Crash Claims, Says the Driver Floored It to 73 MPH.

Tesla executives are pushing back hard against a Business Insider report on a high-speed crash, with both Elon Musk and Autopilot director Ashok Elluswamy saying the data points to driver error, not the software.

The controversy kicked off after online commentators flagged the outlet’s coverage of a serious crash in a residential neighbourhood, with the implication being that Full Self-Driving or Autopilot was somehow involved.

Musk shot that down almost immediately, pointing out that the timeline doesn’t add up given how the software actually behaves on residential streets.

“Yes, this makes no sense. FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!” Musk said.

Elluswamy followed up with actual vehicle telemetry from the incident, and it tells a pretty different story than the one being reported.

“In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area,” Elluswamy said.

According to the data, that’s what sent the car to dangerous speeds before the crash happened.

“They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash,” Elluswamy added.

“This blatantly irresponsible reporting does more harm to people than they realize. Using Tesla self-driving is far safer than manual driving, and this was measured over 10B miles,” said Elluswamy, in another reply. “Planting such [fear, uncertainty, and doubt] in the minds of general public, who might not know the all the facts, might prevent them from using this technology that makes them safer.”

The exchange is the latest flashpoint in Tesla’s long-running friction with mainstream media over how its self-driving tech gets covered. As of now, Business Insider hasn’t responded to the telemetry data Tesla published, alongside other mainstream media which has spread incorrect information.