A Tesla Model 3 driver mowed down 11 construction cones, shared the TeslaCam video, and blamed Tesla’s Automatic Emergency Braking feature powered by Autopilot.
The video serves as a good reminder to remain vigilant when using Autopilot, especially in construction zones.
A Model 3 driver going by “Richard FS” on YouTube was driving in the left lane on a highway in North Carolina when he drove into a bunch of construction cones.
He blamed Tesla’s Automatic Emergency Braking, an active safety feature powered by Autopilot, for the accident:
Tesla Model 3 with FSD option. Automatic Emergency Braking totally failed me on the one time I needed it most. With all the phantom braking events I have experienced in the 2-1/2 months I’ve owned it, it does seem like it would panic when it saw this coming.
Richard shared a video of the accident, which shows him hit 11 construction cones with his Model 3:
https://youtu.be/i9r4nS5EjjQ
Electrek’s Take
For some reason, that video was hilarious to me. I mean, one cone, OK. Two cones? Maybe. Eleven cones? Come on!
People need to remember that they are always responsible to be ready to intervene on Autopilot, and you cannot ever rely on the Automatic Emergency Braking feature.
It’s meant to prevent or reduce the impact of some accidents, but it cannot prevent all accidents.
This is all especially true in construction zones. I drove a few hundred miles on Autopilot last weekend and it went great, but it had issues in construction zones so I would just turn it off.
Tesla should definitely work on that, and AEB should be able to react to cones, but it’s not a reason to just hit a bunch of cones.
Before the video starts, there must have been signs that a construction zone was coming and that the left lane would have to merge into the right lane.
Once you see that, since you are presumably paying attention, you should already either initiate a lane change through Autopilot or take over.
There’s no excuse for mowing down those 11 cones, but Tesla should still definitely use that footage to help improve Autopilot and AEB.
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