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" Yesterday, news broke of the first fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S being operated in Autopilot mode. The accident, which happened in Florida on May 7th, occurred when the Model S ran full speed into the side of a tractor-trailer while the semi was turning left at an intersection.  Early Friday, the AP spoke with the truck driver involved in the accident, and he claimed that the Tesla driver was watching Harry Potter before the wreck. Now, Reuters has confirmed with Florida officials that a portable DVD player was found in the car. Sergeant Kim Montes with the Florida Highway Patrol told Reuters that &amp;quot;there was a portable DVD player in the vehicle,&amp;quot; though it&amp;#039;s unclear if it was on and being used at the time of the crash. Speaking to the AP, the tractor-trailer driver, Frank Beresi, said that Tesla driver, Joshua Brown, was &amp;quot;playing Harry Potter on the TV screen,&amp;quot; and that &amp;quot;it was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the road.&amp;quot; Another Florida Highway Patrol trooper confirmed with Reuters that Harry Potter was playing after Brown&amp;#039;s Tesla came to a rest, but complicating matters, a separate eyewitness claims no film was playing. Brown was driving his Model S when Beresi&amp;#039;s tractor-trailer crossed in front of it while making a turn, resulting in Brown&amp;#039;s Model S to run into the side of it. In a statement, Tesla said the tractor trailer was white and that it was against a &amp;quot;brightly lit sky,&amp;quot; which it claims made it impossible for the car&amp;#039;s Autopilot hardware to detect. The Florida police said there wasn&amp;#039;t a dashcam found in the car at the time of the accident. While it&amp;#039;s unclear if Brown was watching a film while behind the wheel, there&amp;#039;s evidence that points to him possibly being distracted when the crash occurred. Brown was a noted Tesla enthusiast who gained some internet fame earlier this year when a video he posted of his Autopilot-enabled Tesla avoiding a potential accident went viral.  Tesla&amp;#039;s Autopilot system is quite advanced for what it is, but it is still a semi-autonomous system requiring driver engagement, and Tesla notes that many of Autopilot&amp;#039;s features are still in beta mode. As a result of this crash, NHTSA has opened a preliminary investigation into Tesla and will look at 25,000 cars similar to Brown&amp;#039;s 2015 Model S. Updated 7/2 at 11:07 a.m. ET to reflect a new eyewitness account as reported by Reuters. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a29803/portable-dvd-player-tesla-autopilot-crash/>