Tesla Driver's Near Miss with Train in FSD Mode Sparks Concerns
TapTechNews May 26th news. Recently, a Tesla driver claimed that his vehicle nearly hit a moving train in FSD mode. He accused Tesla's FSD system of not responding in time and provided relevant evidence to support his claim.
The driver, named CraigDotyII, said that although he was partly responsible for the accident, he was confused and dissatisfied with the inaction of the FSD system in an emergency. The accident happened on May 8th, and DotyII shared the thrilling video captured by the accident dashcam on the Tesla forum.
According to NBC reports, an automatic collision report generated by Tesla also confirmed that the vehicle was in FSD mode at that time, and the vehicle did not slow down when approaching the train crossing. The report also showed that Doty had his hands on the steering wheel at all times during the accident, which is a necessary safety measure when using this driving mode.
TapTechNews noticed that in the video, it can be seen that the vehicle was traveling to a railway crossing in foggy conditions. Even though the moving train was clearly visible, the vehicle still advanced at a speed of 60 miles per hour without slowing down. At the last moment, Doty took over the vehicle, swerved sharply and braked hard. The car ran off the road and hit the railing at the crossing, finally stopping just inches from the train. The video shot from the reverse angle shows the thrilling scene of the car narrowly missing the train.
Doty said in an interview: I thought at that moment, it's impossible that the car couldn't see the train. It's impossible not to see the flashing lights. Although there was fog at that time, the warning lights were still clearly visible.
Although the name of Tesla's autopilot function sounds rather misleading, in fact, this system (as well as its less advanced assisted driving system Autopilot) is not fully autonomous driving. This somewhat misleading naming has already got Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk into disputes with California state government regulators, who accused Tesla of misleading the public.
The federal government is also closely watching this issue. The US Department of Justice is investigating Tesla for misleading publicity about these driving assistance systems. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also repeatedly investigated accidents involving FSD and Autopilot modes.
This accident will undoubtedly further increase the pressure on Tesla. A spokesman for NHTSA told NBC that the agency is already aware of this and is collecting more information from the manufacturer.