Anesthesiologist William Varner, MD, was among two people who died last week when a Tesla hit a tree in a suburb of Houston, according to a report from Click2Houston, an NBC affiliate.
Dr. Varner was an anesthesiologist at Houston-based Memorial Hermann.
"Dr. Varner was a tremendous human being who personally impacted many throughout our Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center family over the years," Justin Kendrick, senior vice president and CEO of The Woodlands Medical Center, said in a news release. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to his entire family, and also to those who had the privilege of working and serving alongside him in various capacities. He will be dearly missed."
The electric car crashed about 11:30 the night of April 16, and investigators said they found a person in the passenger's seat and someone in the back seat, but nobody in the driver's seat of the car in unincorporated Montgomery County, Texas.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, tweeted April 18 that data logs showed the car didn't have autopilot enabled andfull self-driving computer installations had not been purchased.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the crash with local law enforcement.