Tesla Autopilot vs. Bad Drivers: 25 Stories of How Autopilot Saved Lives (Video)
“Wham Baam Teslacam” has shared a video compilation of 25 stories of Tesla Autopilot saving lives during 25 crashes. In the video are clips of how FSD Beta, Enhanced Autopilot, and AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) have saved lives, avoided crashes, and reacted to different challenging situations.
Teslacam Stories is a channel on YouTube where Tesla owners can share their experiences by submitting their Tesla Dashcam and Sentry Mode video footage. The video below has 25 of these stories, and I’m going to summarize a few of the notable ones below the video.
Scion vs. Model X
On a highway in North Carolina, Andy was driving his Tesla Model X when he was saved by Autopilot from what could have been a life-threatening crash. The driver of the other vehicle, a Scion, had lost control of the vehicle as it came from behind Andy. The Scion crossed directly in front of him, crashing into the guardrail. Andy’s Tesla might have saved both his and the other driver’s life.
What Autopilot did was engage the automatic emergency braking just enough as the Scion came out in front of Andy. This prevented Andy from T-boning the Scion at highway speed. Unfortunately, this also caused Andy to crash and Autopilot wasn’t able to avoid that. Nonetheless, both Andy and the other driver walked away from the wreck.
Model Y Autopilot vs. Reckless Driver
In Santa Barbara, California, Eric was driving his Model Y on Route 101 at night. Autopilot was engaged and saw something that Eric didn’t see. Eric felt the vehicle suddenly start to slow down and was confused for a moment. That was until a reckless driver came from behind him and veered into his lane.
“Autopilot predicted a car speeding up behind them and slowed the Tesla down as the car recklessly cut them off.”
Dodge Ram vs. VW Golf vs. Tesla Autopilot
In Toronto, Canada, Claudio was driving his Model 3 on the highway with Autopilot engaged when traffic started to pile up ahead. Directly in front of him, both a Volkswagen Golf and a Dodge Ram decided to move over to the shoulder — at the same time. This resulted in the larger truck ramming the smaller vehicle into the wall.
Autopilot was preparing to make the same maneuver by applying the brakes and moving slightly onto the shoulder. Claudio stopped to make sure those involved in the accident were okay (they were). He also offered both drivers a copy of the Tesla cam footage.
Semi Truck vs. Model Y on Autopilot
A Tesla Model Y owner was driving their vehicle with Autopilot engaged in California. A semi truck up ahead decided to suddenly merge across two lanes at once to avoid traffic — a move that could have resulted in a deadly accident if it wasn’t for Autopilot’s quick moves.
The video shows the near-miss and, fortunately, a bad collision was avoided.
Easter Turkey vs. Autopilot
Bradd was driving home from an Easter evening at his parents’ house in Ohio. Autopilot was engaged and the speed was set to 45 miles per hour. Sometimes, it’s not just chickens crossing the road, and this was one of those times. A turkey decided that this was the ideal time for it to cross the street. Fortunately, Autopilot engaged automatic emergency braking. This is one lucky turkey.
Tesla’s Autopilot Clearly Saves Lives
A simple Google search on “Autopilot saves lives” will return a mix of news articles, videos, and stories of how Telsa’s Autopilot has seemingly saved lives. It also turned up a piece from ArsTechnica claiming that it won’t save lives — but that article was surrounded by other stories at later dates proving the exact opposite.
Tesla’s main focus, besides sustainability, is making sure its vehicles are safe. Back in 2020, Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s Vice President Environmental, Health & Safety, wrote a blog post about Tesla’s safety culture.
“Our goal is to become the world’s safest company by continuously integrating safety into the way we work and the products we build, which is why we rely on each of our employees, dedicated leaders and Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) professionals and service providers to promote a culture of safety.”
Although her post was more toward the safety of the workplace, I find it notable that this sense of safety culture is also felt in its vehicles.
“We believe that technology can help improve safety in our cars as well as in our workplace. EHS is engaged with engineering so our products are more ergonomically friendly to build and install. Design principles and standards have been established between ergonomics, production and engineering so safety is built into the design process from the initial stages.”
But Tesla’s focus on the minute details and its focus on safety shows just how important safety is to Tesla and its mission.
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