How Tesla Model S Caused Thanksgiving Pileup

Unexpected things can happen at times on the road, that’s why it’s always good to be extra cautious when driving. But even in careful and prudent manner, some people can still be hit by an unfortunate event.

Just like the eight-car pileup that happened on San Fransisco’s Bay Bridge on Thanksgiving last month. Highway surveillance footage has recently popped up via Twitter, showing how the Tesla was the cause of this accident.

I obtained surveillance footage of the self-driving Tesla that abruptly stopped on the Bay Bridge, resulting in an eight-vehicle crash that injured 9 people including a 2 yr old child just hours after Musk announced the self-driving feature.

Full story: https://t.co/LaEvX9TzxW pic.twitter.com/i75jSh2UpN

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 10, 2023

This is not the first time a Tesla gets out of control, though, as we’ve seen before how a Model Y abruptly locked its driver inside. Now it’s a Model S drifting into the outside lane and suddenly slowing down to a stop, thus resulting in the pileup that left nine people injured.

According to the driver, their Model S braked all of a sudden while it was in the Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode. Among the injured victims of the crash is a two-year old child whose back of head suffered an abrasion.

Judging by the video, there’s no apparent evidence that the car’s FSD was active at the time of accident. What we see is the Model S indicating and moving into the outside lane before braking to a complete stop. This unpredictable behavior made the collision unavoidable.

Ironically, the pileup happened only hours after Tesla boss Elon Musk congratulated staff on Twitter for reaching a big milestone on autopilot efforts.

Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option.

Congrats to Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

Today, there are at least 285,000 FSD-enabled vehicles on the road. That’s a good number to make National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concerned, especially after the recent pileup. It prompted NHTSA to launch a full investigation to properly understand the matter.

In addition to this FSD-related issue, there are also more than 100 complaints over Tesla’s unexpected brake activation which have been submitted to the government safety agency.