Imagine cruising along in your car, relying on its “self-driving” technology, when suddenly it takes a turn for the worse – literally.
That’s what happened to Jesse Lyu, the founder and CEO of artificial intelligence gadget startup Rabbit, when his Tesla’s Autopilot feature malfunctioned, putting him in a hair-raising situation.
A Normal Drive Turns into a Nightmare
Lyu was on his usual 15-minute commute from his apartment to his office in downtown Santa Monica, with his Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) features engaged.
He had his arms resting on the steering wheel, letting the car do its thing, when disaster struck. At a stoplight, his Tesla turned left onto Colorado Avenue, but instead of staying in the lane, it veered onto a street-grade light rail track between the road’s vehicle traffic lanes.
hi @elonmusk – FSD v13.2.2 just drove me to a train line here in Santa Monica. sending this video clips and hopefully you guys can fix it fast. (i was shaking and i had to ran a red light to save my life). pic.twitter.com/GOERJSEcTq
— Jesse Lyu (@jessechenglyu) January 2, 2025
With a low concrete barrier separating the lanes and a fence on the other side, Lyu was trapped.
“It’s just f—king crazy,” Lyu exclaimed in a video he posted online, narrating the terrifying incident. “I’ve got nowhere to go. And, you can tell from behind … the train’s right here.”
With the oncoming train just a block behind him, Lyu was “literally shaking” and had to think fast to avoid a potential collision. He disengaged the Autopilot feature and ran the red light at the next intersection to get out of the train’s path.
A Flawed System?
The incident highlights the flaws in Tesla’s self-driving technology. While other companies like Waymo have successfully implemented lidar-based autonomous driving systems, Tesla is still relying on cameras and iterative prototypes.
The Autopilot feature is basic, and the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) package, despite its name, requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all times.
A Confusing Message from Tesla
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been known for his grandiose claims about the company’s self-driving technology.
In 2021, he stated that he was “confident” Tesla’s self-driving tech would be better than a human driver by the end of the year. However, the reality is that the technology is still far from perfect, and drivers like Lyu are left to deal with the consequences.
A Call to Action
Lyu, who paid $10,000 for the Full Self-Driving feature, isn’t trying to promote himself with the video. Instead, he’s hoping that Tesla will take notice and fix the issue.
“I’m just trying to share this video to Tesla and the team,” he said. “This is a serious problem, and regardless of how a human reacts, the autopilot algorithm should never put any of their vehicles onto the train track. That’s just fundamentally wrong.”
As a customer, Lyu wants the feature to improve, and his experience serves as a reminder that self-driving technology is still in its infancy.
With over 690,000 views on his video, Lyu’s terrifying close call has sparked a necessary conversation about the limitations and potential dangers of autonomous driving systems.