Self-Driving Tesla Almost Crashes Head-on Into Police Car
Close Call
A Tesla owner had a terrifying run-in on May 3 while driving down a country road with his vehicle's so-called "Full Self-Driving" feature turned on.
Dashcam footage from the user, who goes by FixorFkit and shared the video on X-formerly-Twitter, shows the vehicle crossing the median and veering into the opposite lane to avoid a cyclist — just as a cop car was approaching from the other direction.
Thanks to a quick intervention, he managed to narrowly avoid a collision.
"Stupid fucking thing," the driver can be heard saying after yanking the steering wheel to stay behind the cyclist.
"One of the most horrific drives I had with FSD yet!" FixorFkit wrote. "Important to be alert with FSD. I took over and pulled us back to safety!"
The incident highlights the glaring shortcomings of Tesla's infamous driver assistance software, which regulators have long argued lulls Tesla drivers into a false sense of security — and how a lack of attention could easily lead to a collision in a matter of seconds.
https://twitter.com/FixorFkit/status/1787197847198446005
Eyes on the Road
The company's Autopilot software has already been the subject of several governmental investigations.
Just last month, federal regulators released a report in which they found that Tesla's controversial driver assistance software was linked to hundreds of injuries and dozens of deaths.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that those using FSD "were not sufficiently engaged in the driving task" and that Tesla "did not adequately ensure that drivers maintained their attention."
Today, the NHTSA revealed in a new filing that it had found Tesla didn't adequately address the issue following a recall of two million vehicles with Autopilot in December, and had "several concerns."
The regulator identified at least 20 crashes involving Teslas which had a new Autopilot update installed that was designed to address the issue of inattentive drivers. Nine of them involved Teslas colliding with other vehicles or people in their path.
In other words, we're likely to see more incidents like the one recorded by FixorFkit — and given how Tesla is marketing the software, many of the drivers won't be able to intervene before it's too late.
And the stakes are high: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is essentially betting the company on the success of the company's driver assistance tech and hopes to show off a "robotaxi" as soon as August.
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