Autopilot of Tesla Model S caused pileup

Tesla’s Autopilot is once again the subject of criticism. It has now emerged that a vehicle from the e-car manufacturer is alleged to have caused a pileup in San Francisco at the end of last year. The juicy part: the car was driving with Full Self Driving mode (FSD) turned on.

Criticism of Tesla’s FSD is getting louder

Elon Musk should certainly have sleepless nights at the moment. While criticism poured in on him worldwide after he took over Twitter in the fall of 2022, he was at least able to rely on the success of his world-famous Tesla brand. But even that now seems to be coming to an end. After all, it is not only in this country that people are debating the unlawful working conditions at the Gigafactory in Grünheide. On top of that, the company has also been harshly scolded in recent days when a senior software developer testified in court that it faked a promo video from 2016. In it, the automaker put the spotlight on its Autopilot.

Now a traffic accident in San Francisco is making more negative headlines. In November 2022, a Tesla Model S there triggered a pileup involving a total of eight vehicles. The cause was a sharp braking maneuver. However, this was apparently not carried out by the driver himself, as the authorities have now announced. Instead, the Tesla was driving with the FSD switched on. The responsible authority coworkers could determine this after detailed data analysis now beyond doubt, which emerges from a report of CNN.

Sudden emergency braking to 11 km/h

Considering that Autopilot was active for just 30 seconds at the time of the accident, Tesla must be accused of a total failure here. According to the CNN report, the Model S first switched to the left lane while FSD was engaged. Subsequently, it came to a strong braking to just 11 km/h. As a result, cars behind it were barely able to adequately avoid it. The accident then resulted in a total of nine people being injured. Furthermore, the authorities state that camera recordings can be used to prove that the Model S had no reason to brake hard. This phenomenon is now known as “phantom braking” and is well known to Tesla drivers who rely on the support of Autopilot.