A dashcam video recently posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, by user Tesla Cars Only Family (@teslacarsonly) appears to show a Tesla stopping itself after hitting a little girl who ran into the road.
Though the car sends the girl tumbling, the situation could have been much worse if the car hadn't stopped itself. The girl in the video gets up, and a woman, holding an even smaller child, rushes across the road and picks her up.
TESLA STOPPING ITSELF TO SAVE A KID. pic.twitter.com/o6Rg7InioO
— TESLA CARS ONLY FAMILY⚡ (@teslacarsonly) August 21, 2023
Tesla has been working for years to perfect its Full Self-Driving capabilities after early iterations were less than reliable. According to Car and Driver, Tesla vehicles on autopilot have been involved in 736 crashes since 2019, and the technology has been implicated in 17 deaths.
There have also been continued issues with Teslas on autopilot hitting emergency vehicles, so much so that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation in 2021. The original investigation began with 11 such incidents but has recently expanded to include 16 crashes.
However, many of these accidents likely could have been avoided if the driver had used the autopilot feature correctly. The Tesla user manual states, "Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car, nor does it make a car autonomous."
Looking online, it's easy to find instances of Tesla autopilot successes and failures, or in some cases, instances of both. Clearly, in this case, it was a huge success and may have saved that little girl from significant injury.
One person commented, "Omg, could have been so much worse."
"It could have been a lot worse," another commenter said. "Tesla saving lives one at a time."
Another commented, "Safest car in the world!"
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