this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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I guess Tesla's systems don't even qualify as very basic. Here's a video from as far back as 2020. Tesla crashes straight into a huge flat surface.
https://youtu.be/eKgSDi2109U
There's so many more examples if you go looking.
That would have been AutoPilot 6 years ago.
AP back then had radar, but radar cant reliably detect a stationary object at high speeds. Every OEMs traffic aware cruise control had this weakness if its radar based back then. They typically warn you about it before first use, which is part of why you must pay attention.
Only vision or lidar can address an issue like this, and cars weren't really shipping with lidar back then.
Newer Teslas with HW4 and FSD would handle this better. HW3 and FSD might not reliably handle it, but its hard to say.
Edit: and even today on HW4 car, AP would probably fail here like this story. Its just not meant for this and is very very old at this point.
Yes, radar was found to be useless at highway speeds for stationary objects because if it responded to such events, you get sudden, emergency "ghost braking." Radar is so low resolution, it cannot tell the difference between the back of a tractor trailer and a large sign or overpass.
The point was to illustrate the failure of the visual system from way back then. And considering the price point of Teslas, the fact they still don't have lidar today is criminal.
That would require the muskrat to experience a moment of self reflection and admit he was wrong about something.
The fact that American trucks and SUVs don't have forward facing cameras that activate at slow speeds to prevent driving over kids hidden in their insane blind spots while navigating parking lots and driveways should be criminal. The headlight situation as well (Europe is actually doing something, fwiw). We also had external airbag tech to prevent pedestrian deaths decades ago and with modern vision systems they could be incredibly cheap and highly reliable today, but its not criminal to ignore that tech.
They even fought seatbelt requirements for gods sake. The auto industry are depraved. Let's not give any of them a pass.
Edit: I can't help but add that everything above is so damned cheap it would be a rounding error on a vehicles manufacturing cost and wouldn't impact their shitty "design goals and styling" one iota. I'm not even suggesting changing the shape or size of them here.
The point is that no consumer system on the road back then would have reliably prevented that incident, and it is better today.
Edit: to clarify, youre trying to say it isnt even basic because back then it failed at something everything would have failed at.
Lidar first started getting deployed commercially in cars in 2017.
Teslas are still using the same sensors today that they were back then.
Maybe there was 1 or 2 consumer cars in 2017, but it wasn't normal, hence my earlier comment. They were all typically radar and vision.
Its still vision yes, but the cameras were upgraded in HW4 vehicles.
Edit: i should clarify, for the typical brands people could buy in north America. I actually have no idea what Chinese cars had in them back then.