OREANDA-NEWS. The Prosecutor's Office of the State of California (USA) has charged the driver of a Tesla car with manslaughter for a fatal road accident that occurred in 2019. At the monent of the accident, the electric car was moving with autopilot turned on, the Associated Press writes.

According to the agency, the case was the first in U.S. history when a driver was charged with a criminal offense for a fatal accident that occurred as a result of using a partially automated driving system. According to AP, there is no mention of using autopilot in official documents.

At the same time, according to the National Road Safety Administration of the country, at the time of the accident, the car was controlled by autopilot. Recall that the road incident occurred in the suburbs of Los Angeles on December 29, 2019. A Tesla Model S, moving at high speed and driving through a forbidding traffic light, crashed into a Honda Civic. As a result, two people who were in the Honda died on the spot. The owner of the electric car, 27-year-old Kevin George Aziz Riad, pleaded not guilty.

In May 2021, the California Highway Patrol arrested a Tesla driver who was seen sitting in the back seat several times while driving the car. Such a manner of driving is a gross violation of the rules, since the Tesla autopilot does not yet allow to drive a car without driver control. The arrested 25-year-old man spent the night in Santa Rita prison. At the same time, he does not intend to abandon the dangerous manner of driving.