The first person to die in a U.S. crash involving a car in self-driving mode was the tech-savvy 40-year-old owner of a Tesla Model S who nicknamed his car "Tessy" and praised its sophisticated "Autopilot" system.

Joshua D. Brown, of Canton, Ohio, died in the May 7 crash in Williston, Florida, when his car's cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer rig from a brightly lit sky and didn't automatically activate its brakes, according to government records and a Tesla statement issued Thursday.