The owner of a Tesla Model X says the car’s autopilot feature steered his vehicle directly into the back of a semi truck last week.
According to a recent report from Electrek.co, a news website that covers electric vehicles, the accident happened on Thursday, March 23rd in California.
The car’s owner described the incident and included a photo of the aftermath on Facebook.
“There was a pickup truck that was out of gas in the right lane (lights were either dim or off, and give the night, was hard to see). A semi was pulling up onto it, saw it, braked and swerved into my middle lane. Autopilot did not disengage, but did the emergency beep about 1 second before impact. I was looking off to the side, and impacted the truck immediately after I heard the beep and looked forward,” he wrote.
The driver went on to explain that the bottom of the semi sliced through the passenger side of the car’s roof, completely tearing off its headrest.
Here’s what the Tesla looked like after the crash.
Despite the collision, the Tesla driver credited the vehicle’s high safety rating for helping to prevent serious injury.
“The autopilot caused me to drive full speed into the back of a semi, but the amazing safety ratings saved my life. While I’m grateful that I’m alive, I just want to put this on notice to not get overly comfortable with the autopilot and that there are still many flaws and unaccountable situations,” he added.
This incident occurred just weeks after a driver in Texas filmed a self-driving Tesla drive straight into a highway barrier (watch).