Tesla Motors Inc. said on Wednesday that it has no way of knowing whether its semi-automated Autopilot system is to blame for a tragic accident that led to the death of a Chinese man named Gao Yaning in January.

"Because of the damage caused by the collision the car was physically incapable of transmitting log data to our servers," Tesla said.

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The accident occurred in January after a Tesla Vehicle collided with a cleaning truck on a highway in Hebei province.

Gao, 23, was the owner of a Tesla automobile, which was bought from one of Tesla's dealers in Beijing.

In a statement, California-based, Palo Alto, dealer said that the incident was indeed bad for the company and that efforts to work with the family are becoming fruitless.

"We were saddened to learn of the of our customer's son," he said. "We have tried repeatedly to work with our customer to investigate the cause of the crash, but he has not provided us with any additional information that would allow us to do so."

The company has been issued a lawsuit notice by the family of the deceased after a court in Beijing accepted to hear the case.

The family is asking for 10,000 yuan ($2039) as compensation.

A similar incident transpired in Florida, leading to the death of 40-year-old, Joshua Brown, in May. A Tesla device was also involved in a small accident in Beijing in August.

With such events transpiring, Tesla has switched its marketing strategy, saying that its cars are not self-driving but rather a driving-assistant.

Tagschina, Tesla Motors Inc, Self-Drive Technology