A few days ago, a Tesla Model 3 owner in the United States posted on a social platform, "Tesla FSD almost killed me today." In this post, the car owner shared a dash cam video of the FSD failing to recognize the railway crossing railing, leading to the accident.
In the video,The vehicle was traveling at 23 miles per hour near West Covina, California, and in Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode.The vehicle approached a railway crossing where the railings had just been lowered, and then directly hit the rails and rushed over.
The height of the crossing railing was roughly the same as the Tesla's forward-looking camera, and the system showed no sign of detecting the railing or attempting to slow down.The driver failed to intervene in time, but the driving recorder showed that he stepped on the brakes at the moment of impact.
The car owner's post triggered a lot of discussion among netizens. Some netizens pointed out that "FSD belongs to L2 assisted driving and requires continuous monitoring by the driver." Others criticized, "Tesla sells a product called Fully Autonomous Driving, but it cannot even recognize the railway crossing railings."
It is understood that this is not the first time that a Tesla FSD has failed at a railway crossing. In a previous case, a Model 3 with FSD turned on in eastern Pennsylvania was brought onto the track by the system and was subsequently hit by a train. The driver and passenger had exited the vehicle before the impact, but the vehicle was destroyed.
The severity of the problem has prompted senators to send a letter to NHTSA urging a formal investigation specifically into FSD's performance at railroad crossings.