A Tesla drove in the wrong direction, resulting in a head-on collision with another vehicle, during a livestream, demonstrating Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ features.
Earlier this year, Tesla launched its Level 2 driver-assist system, ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD), in China.
Like in the US, despite its name, the system requires constant driver supervision. Unlike in the US, China quickly made Tesla change the name of the system as it was judged not representative of its capabilities.
Many Tesla owners in China have been enthusiastically livestreaming their drives using FSD on platforms such as Douyin (TikTok).
They try to demonstrate that Tesla FSD is able to operate the vehicle by itself and compare it to other similar systems from other automakers in China.
Last week, a Douyin user going by 切安好 was livestreaming a Tesla FSD drive in his Model 3 when the vehicle went into the left lane, which was for the opposing traffic, and collided head-on with another car.
The livestream itself wasn’t widely popular, but the Tesla owner posted video captures of the aftermath, which quickly went viral:
Fortunately, no one was critically hurt during the crash.
Many questioned whether FSD was active during the incident, and the driver initially didn’t release the crash footage as he claimed to be seeking direct compensation from Tesla, which isn’t likely.
The automaker always states that it is not responsible for its FSD or Autopilot systems.
The Tesla driver has now released the footage, which clearly shows that FSD was active during the crash and initiated the lane change into the wrong direction:
The crash highlights the dangers of being overconfident in Tesla’s autonomous driving features.
Electrek’s Take
Be safe out there. Some people are abusing driver assistance features and are a danger to all road users.
Top comment by Tesla Y owner
What I told NHTSA on Dec 6:
Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) stopped my car on trolley tracks today, and would have stayed on the tracks for a minute if I hadn't taken control and driven off the tracks.
This occurred in downtown San Diego, where the trolley (light rail) has many level street crossings. They are well marked. You are not supposed to enter the zone around the tracks until the vehicle ahead of you has moved far enough for you to be able to cross the tracks and get safely past them.
I was using FSD. It drove my Tesla onto the tracks before the car ahead of me had given me room to get off the tracks. The line of traffic was stopped for a red light. I would not have been able to drive forward until the light changed, perhaps over a minute. So, I took over and manually drove the car into the adjacent lane, which luckily was empty, and off the tracks.
If a train had come while FSD was still in control, this would have killed me, and perhaps other nearby people.
There was no warning message or other indicator.
Tesla isn’t helping with its own marketing, encouraging abuse with claims that FSD “gives you time back” as if you don’t have to be supervising the system all the time.
Recently, Tesla even started monitoring usage of your phone less while using FSD.
Also of note, Grok, Elon Musk’s LLM, falsely claimed that this crash was “staged” and that the driver was “manual driving”:
There’s misinformation everywhere. Weird times.
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