According to the driver, the vehicle was in fully autonomous driving (FSD) mode. Moreover, this is not the first time he encountered an alarming incident at the railway crossing. This fact probably saved his life because he was partially prepared that this could happen again.

What happened

I’ve owned my Tesla for less than a year, and twice in the last six months it has tried to crash directly into a passing train while in FSD mode.
– forum user Craig Doty II from Camden, Ohio, USA wrote on Sunday.

According to him, the last incident occurred on May 8, 2024. There’s also dashcam footage and, as you can see, the car’s dashcams.

The moment Tesla almost crashed into wagons: video

In the video, you see that even though the weather was foggy that day, the moving wagons could be seen from meters away. But the car approaches without even thinking about slowing down or stopping. At the last moment, the driver turns right, sending the Tesla towards the barrier.

Another angle of the incident: video

Commenters on the forum mostly asked reasonable questions and tried to learn more about why this might have happened. However, some have expressed doubts that the creator of the video actually used FSD.

There has been a lot of discussion about this technology lately. While some accuse him of not preventing the accident or even provoking it himself, others are trying to prove the safety of autopilot with their own examples. In one case, the owner of a Tesla electric car even placed his own child in the path of the car to demonstrate that the car stops when it detects a person.

Craig Doty II dismissed skepticism, saying FSD works just fine for the most part, but Has experienced two worrying events since purchasing the vehicle.

Both incidents occurred at different level crossings where I was the first car on the track. I have to drive 55 miles one way every morning, and 98% of the time the FSD does exactly what it’s supposed to do.
– He is writing.

Tesla after the accident / Photo: Craig Doty II

Some commenters suggested that the video’s author may have been using a less advanced version of FSD, more like cruise control. But he continues to claim that he wasn’t trying to commit “insurance fraud” by claiming it was on FSD. He added that he was “very concerned that the FSD system failed to recognize a train crossing the railway line twice.”