Tesla Dashcam Video Shows Autopilot Prevented Collision With Big Rig

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This short, silent dashcam video shows the Tesla Autopilot system protecting a Model X from being hit by a very large tractor-trailer at night with some light rainfall. The setting is I-95 South in North Carolina. It was published April 24, 2018, from the account Jeremy Visnesky. He wrote, “Had Autopilot not have bolted to the side I’m pretty sure he would have hit me.” As of the writing of this article, the video has about 212,000 views. 

Although this video is just a short clip, it’s very clear that the big rig swerves into the Tesla’s lane and then Autopilot steers the Model X away from it. From the clip, it appears that maybe the truck driver nodded off or had a lapse in attention. In front of the Tesla is another tractor-trailer.

Some of the user comments under it are illuminating — “do not turn off sound recording. In the event of a collision, say the registration number of the perpetrator’s car. This will facilitate the recovery of money in case he escapes from the scene of the accident and the license plates on the film were not clear.”

Another: “That is a fast reaction to a sideswipe! It’s freaky how fast the whole situation occurred. I love how the Tesla driver gets out of slow lane afterwards.”

And another: “I bet this happens thousands of times per day but the media seems to never cover it. All they care about is anti-tesla news.”

This video is very important in a sense. First of all, it was created by a Tesla driver, not a journalist who doesn’t drive or own a Tesla. Some online articles about Teslas have been very slanted against them for a variety of reasons — yet, they were written by people who don’t even own them, or may have never driven one!

If every Tesla driver uploaded a video to YouTube showing each time Autopilot prevented an accident, there might be hundreds or thousands, and their presence might make a dent in the stream of negative Tesla news stories.

Here’s another video from Jeremy Visnesky showing how Autopilot successfully alerted him to the presence and lane change of another large truck.

Considering all the news stories about Tesla Autopilot and how many fatalities have been potentially linked to it, up until April of 2018, apparently that number was only three. That is an unfortunate three, but luckily that figure is relatively small considering the number of vehicles on the road.

Just for a bit more information, another YouTube user (greentheonly) uploaded a video of what the Tesla autopilot systems “sees” when a Tesla is being driven. Included in the accompanying text is the following key to help understand what you are viewing: The circle colors represent objects: green — moving, yellow — stopped, orange — stationary, red — unknown. Distance to the object is represented by circle size.

Image credit on homepage: Christopher Ziemnowicz, via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)


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Jake Richardson

Hello, I have been writing online for some time, and enjoy the outdoors. If you like, you can follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JakeRsol

Jake Richardson has 1020 posts and counting. See all posts by Jake Richardson