Fred Lambert, a well-known Tesla fan and the editor-in-chief of the electric vehicle blog Electrek, has a scary story to share about Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. He says that while he was driving his Model 3, FSD almost caused a serious accident.
Fred was driving to Montreal and had FSD turned on, cruising at a steady 73 miles per hour. Everything seemed normal until his Tesla tried to pass another car.
“I felt FSD Beta veering aggressively to the left toward the median strip,” Lambert recalled.
Suddenly, FSD made a sharp left move toward the middle of the road. Luckily, Fred had his hands on the steering wheel, which is a safety rule for Tesla drivers. He quickly steered the car back onto the road.
“It was super scary as I almost lost control when correcting FSD Beta,” Lambert said. “I was passing a vehicle. I could have crashed into it if I overcorrected.”
But then, against better judgment, Fred reactivated FSD and the same mistake happened again. This time, when he tried to get back into the left lane, FSD made another sudden left turn, almost driving into an emergency U-turn meant only for police and fire vehicles.
Thankfully, Fred took control just in time to avoid a catastrophe. He compared this malfunction to a past issue with Tesla’s Autopilot system, where it would unexpectedly exit the highway.
“Tesla Autopilot used to try to take exit ramps it wasn’t supposed to in the early days, but it was something that Tesla fixed a while ago,” he said. “I haven’t had that happen to me in years.”
Fred reported the problem to Tesla, writing, “Autopilot just tried to kill me, so please fix it.” He believes this may be due to recent aggressive updates in FSD.
What all of this basically means is that Tesla’s FSD technology is just not quite there yet and shouldn’t be considered 100% safe for use on public roads. Authorities have started noticing this problem and even the US Justice Department is looking into Tesla for misleading and false marketing and advertising of autopilot. Even the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into an unsafe “Elon Mode” for Autopilot.
Fred’s advice for Tesla users is to only use FSD as it’s supposed to be used, and maybe even consider not using it at all for now.