Tesla's Musk Says New Autopilot Likely Would Have Prevented Death

[Ron Burgundy]

By Alexandria Sage and David Shepardson SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Co Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Sunday the automaker was updating its semi-autonomous driving system Autopilot with new limits on hands-off driving and other improvements that likely would have prevented a fatality in May. Musk said the update, which will be available within a week or two through an "over-the-air" software update, would rely foremost on radar to give Tesla's electric luxury cars a better sense of what is around them and when to brake. "We're making much more effective use of radar," Musk told journalists on a phone call. "It will be a dramatic improvement in the safety of the system done entirely through software." Tesla's Autopilot, introduced in October, has been the focus of intense scrutiny since it was revealed in July that a Tesla Model S driver, Joshua Brown, was killed while using the technology in a May 7 collision with a truck in Florida.

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