With all of the talk about unsupervised Robotaxis, you might reasonably wonder when Tesla’s self-driving tech will be ready to roam American roads without a human ready to step in.
Not too soon, based on recent videos of self-driving Teslas trying to drive into oncoming traffic.
We found 3 examples, give them a watch to see how Tesla’s tech performs in the real-world.
Self-Driving Tesla Causes Oncoming Traffic to Take Evasive Action
Tesla drives into oncoming traffic
by u/samtks in TeslaFSD
- The driver says the Tesla signaled the lane change as it began to change lanes, so no warning.
- It was attempting to overtake, despite plainly visible oncoming traffic.
- At those speeds, a crash would very likely be fatal for all involved. (A head-on crash at 60 MPH is like hitting a brick wall at 120 MPH.)
Tech specs: Tesla FSD v. 12.6.4, released May 2025. Hardware 3.
This isn’t an isolated incident, either. For a variety of (often very stupid) reasons, or for no reason at all, Teslas keep self-driving into the oncoming lane.
Cybertruck Detects Oncoming Pickup Truck, Tries to Ram It
Here’s another Tesla, a Cybertruck this time, trying to take its passengers to the final destination. The driver once again intervenes in the knick of time, leaving us with sweaty palms and lingering questions.
Cybertruck detects oncoming truck and tries to drive right into it
by u/Met76 in ThatsInsane
- The FSD system detects and visualizes the oncoming traffic, and then plots a turn across that traffic’s travel… for no particular reason?
- There’s no obvious cause for this malfunction. Sometimes stupid things like shadows across the road or tire skid marks can outfox the Tesla cameras, but nothing like that here.
- Listen with the audio on. The driver offers some helpful context.
Tech specs: 2024 Tesla Cybertruck. Hardware 4. Version unknown, but Cybertruck had FSD first enabled with v. 12.5.5, released in late 2024, so the version must be less than a year old.
Bad Software Leads to Wild Driving Results
FSD illegal right turn then head on in wrong lane
by u/KeeperOfTheIsisLight in TeslaFSD
- It’s a perfectly garbage piece of driving. Oncoming cars present, the turn cuts across traffic. 0/10, no points awarded (unless points on your license count).
- On the one hand, I wish the driver had aborted the blind turn, but on the other hand, I don’t know how much time they had to do so safely.
- Driving into oncoming traffic is a bad thing, no matter how much Tesla fanboys tell you to not sweat it.
Tech specs: Tesla FSD v. 13.2.x, released as early as November 2024. Hardware 4.
A Note on Tech Specs
I’m including as much data as I can glean about the cars and self-driving versions here. The reason for that is that often readers wonder if the tech is improving, and the version numbers can help people draw their own conclusions.
There’s also bad-faith (or just very dumb) arguments from Tesla fans, where no matter what goes wrong, it was fixed in the latest update. That’s so common that it’s a joke, so if you see people getting shit for asking “wHaT vErSiOn iS iT,” that’s why. You should know that I’m not including version numbers for those clowns (or clown bots).
Official Data is Redacted, This is the Best That We’ve Got
Of course, we would all have an easier time measuring Tesla FSD’s safety progress if we had access to the government’s data that includes the version numbers associated with crashes… but Tesla had that data redacted.
Usually corporate types don’t hide data that looks good, so I think we can safely assume what trend is behind those redactions.
You Had One Job, Q/A Team!
So, that’s the state of Tesla’s recent releases of self-driving software.
Tesla’s self-driving technology has well-known weaknesses, like being blinded by glare, fog, or rain. Relying on cameras without fallback sensors like LiDAR or even simple crash-avoidance radar modules will cause issues like that.
These critical errors in the videos are even more basic: the system can see AOK, but something in the software goes haywire and attempts to kill the vehicle’s occupants. It’s hard to see how a system like this will be ready for unsupervised use any time soon without a human ready to catch all of the nearly-catastrophic errors.
