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Tesla autopilot car crash leaves two men dead

Investigators are looking into an explosive Tesla car crash that killed two men in Texas. Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland, Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman discuss.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: And the other story that we're watching this morning that has to do with some unfortunate news, has to do with Tesla and a crash in Texas that killed two men. Now, the early reports, and this hasn't been confirmed yet, the early reports makes it sound as though these men were using the autopilot feature on the Tesla. One man was in the passenger seat, one was in the rear seat.

Now, as we've known, as has been widely reported, autopilot ain't really autopilot. You still need to be behind the wheel of the vehicle. So, to your point, Myles, on company response, like, take the name autopilot off the thing. I'm not clear on why Tesla hasn't done this already. This is not fully autonomous driving, and it shouldn't be portrayed as fully autonomous driving.

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Because this doesn't appear to be the first time that we've seen this. And there have also been some sort of stunt videos with people not sitting in the driver's seat, or pretending to sleep, or maybe really sleeping, I don't know, when they're driving their Teslas.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, I mean, branding matters, right? And I know that, to your point, Julie, people who follow this story very closely are well aware that Tesla's autopilot feature is not full autopilot. But not everyone is going to get that message. So, look, I think, when it comes to Tesla, everyone's probably made up their mind on what the company is doing, you know, what's good, what's bad, what's in different.

Stock is-- we can talk about the crypto story today, maybe that's part of this decline. Maybe it is this story with the autopilot feature. But, you know, words matter, and there's a lot in this name, as you mentioned, Julie. It is called autopilot, even though the company has said, and I think many users are aware, that it is not full self-driving car. Not everyone is going to know that because auto is right there-- right there in the name.

BRIAN SOZZI: And a sidebar to this unfortunate incident too, guys, according to news reports, it took over 30,000 gallons of water to put out this flame-- put out these flames, which-- which raises the question, should there be new types of protocols to put out electric car fires? Are there even protocols, because if we're moving to an electric future, clearly, there has to be some form of strict protocols in place. Whether it's a new product, or I'm not so sure what it is, but clearly, something needs to be put in place here.

JULIE HYMAN: Now, really good point, Sozzi.