My Tesla Tried To Kill Me

This is NOT an April Fool’s joke, although I admit that the title is a bit tongue in cheek. You see, about a month or two ago, following a Tesla software update for our Model Y, I was stopped at a red light. I was the first vehicle lined up at the intersection (i.e., no cars between me and the traffic light). While my traffic light remained red, the traffic light in the next intersection ahead of me turned from red to green, and that’s when my Tesla’s Green Traffic Light Chime (Autopilot settings pictured above) kicked in. The “ding” is supposed to alert you to the traffic light turning green, and at the time I remember wondering if my car would have proceeded to run the red light into cross-traffic if Full Self-Driving mode was turned on.

I can understand why my vehicle made the mistake since the 2 intersections were not far apart from one another. However, I also know that Teslas have the ability to judge relative distances, so it should have known that the traffic light that was closer to me was still red. Perhaps it failed to see one of the 2 traffic lights which is equally concerning. Tesla began replacing its ultrasonic sensors with Tesla Vision in 2021, so our 2023 Model Y (purchased in December 2022) should have been equipped with the newer technology.

I’ve experienced many other false alarms when the Forward Collision Warning alarms (also in the Autopilot settings pictured above) would scream at me on narrow winding roads near the UCLA campus, thinking that I was going to collide with either parked cars on the side of the road or with oncoming traffic. Note that even with Forward Collision Warning set to “Late” I have still been experiencing lots of false alarms. I assume that the artificial intelligence that powers the collision warnings was trained in scenarios where the roads were not quite so narrow and curvy. At a minimum, this erodes my trust in the Full Self-Driving feature. I also feel that these false alarms are startling and can be potential distractions or even safety hazards.

We were notified a few days ago that we were granted a 30-day free trial of Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

Notice that it explicitly states “You and anyone you authorize must use additional caution and remain attentive. It does not make your vehicle autonomous. Do not become complacent.” I might experiment with Full Self-Driving, but at this point I am not sure if I will rely on it routinely, as I have witnessed far too many instances where the car has mistakenly interpreted driving situations. Even if it makes the correct decision 99.99% of the time, that is 1 mistake in 1,000 (these are hypothetical numbers, as I do not know the actual accuracy rates), and any individual trip may involve hundreds, thousands, or more decisions. I think my views will change as the technology improves, so stay tuned...