A driver was killed in a violent head-on collision in Alma, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean early Monday morning.
The 34-year-old woman was driving a Tesla car when the vehicle went off track and collided directly with an oncoming dump truck.
At the time of the accident, which occurred around 8:40 a.m., the pavement on Boulevard Maurice-Paradis was not slippery.
The numerous debris from the vehicle covered a large part of the road after the collision.
“The road was clear on the wet, it’s a very slight curve and it’s not a place that’s necessarily prone to accidents,” explains Hugues Beaulieu of the Surete du Québec in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
All hypotheses are considered to explain this particularly violent collision.
“Circumstances are always nebulous, is it a matter of falling asleep or even a distraction? Obviously, the investigation will clarify this. There will also be a mechanical inspection of the vehicle,” adds the SQ spokesman.
Police will also assess whether automatic driving was used during the tragedy.
Tesla cars are equipped with level 2 driver assistance systems out of a scale of 5, where 0 is a normal vehicle and 5 is a 100% autonomous vehicle.
Even if the Tesla system is called “Autopilot”, the car is still a long way from being able to drive itself.