Tech founder Jesse Lyu said he was “literally shaking” when his Tesla, with Full Self-Driving (which does not drive itself) engaged, drove itself onto train tracks in Santa Monica last week. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to push FSD as being a better and safer driver than humans, incidents like this one continue to pile up. Lyu, in the end was thankfully not hurt, but he was forced to turn off FSD and run a red light to avoid being hit by the light rail.
This process began as Lyu’s car was executing a left turn and turned one lane too sharp into the “train lane” that runs down the center of the boulevard. To prevent cars from going down this lane, it is separated from the driving lanes by a low concrete wall. Once Lyu was on the tracks, he had no recourse but to continue down them until the lane opened up into another intersection. Once he’d confirmed all of the pedestrians were out of his way and there was an opening in traffic, Lyu then ran a red light to get out of the way of a train bearing down from the block behind.
Lyu told San Francisco Gate in an interview following the incident that he remained a “happy customer” and that he still trusts his Tesla’s “self-driving” technology, despite the car having “scared him, badly.”
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Lyu said he wasn’t trying to promote himself with the video, he was just posting it “founder to founder,” in hopes that Musk’s workforce would fix the left-turn issue.
“I’m just trying to share this video to Tesla and the team,” he said. “This is a serious problem, and regardless how a human reacts, the autopilot algorithm should never put any of their vehicles onto the train track. That’s just fundamentally wrong.”
He added that he paid for the Full Self-Driving feature when it cost $10,000, and he’s been pleased that he opted for the upgrade. Still, it’s far from perfect.
“I like to try it; I like to use it,” Lyu said. “The reason I’m sharing this is that, me as a customer, I want this feature to be better.”
Mr. Musk is currently too busy shaping President Trump’s policies and fantasizing about a war with the United Kingdom to respond.