A car that was driving itself has been involved in a fatal crash for the first time, after a person at the wheel of one of Tesla Motors’ electric cars that was operating under its own control was killed in the US.

The death was revealed by the company on Thursday, a day after it was notified that federal regulators were investigating the role its technology may have played in the accident.

Tesla sought to deflect blame from its Autopilot feature, which was the most advanced driving-assistance technology on the road when it was launched last October. The company claimed that both the unnamed driver and its technology had failed to notice the imminent danger just before the accident occurred, though it did not explain how it came to that conclusion or what kind of investigation it had carried out.