Tesla FSD Stops Mid-Intersection to Prevent T-Bone Crash
The incident occurred as Tesla awaits a delayed EU vote on full approval for its supervised autonomy system.
Tesla shared dashcam footage Tuesday showing its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system braking mid-intersection to avoid a collision with a vehicle that ran a stop sign, highlighting a recent safety intervention by the company's autonomy stack.
What Happened
Tesla’s main account on X posted a video titled “FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash,” sourced from an owner identified as TheNewGrid. The footage shows the vehicle beginning to cross an intersection after determining it was safe to proceed, only to brake hard in the middle of the junction as another car ran the stop sign. The owner stated that they had assumed the other driver would stop and believed that manual driving would have resulted in a crash.
This clip is part of a series of safety-related posts amplified by Tesla in recent days, including videos of FSD clearing a path for an ambulance and commentary from Tesla AI lead Ashok Elluswamy regarding the system's reaction times. The incident occurs shortly after Tesla began shipping Automatic Collision Evasion with FSD v14.3.9, a feature designed to activate the autonomy system if a frontal collision is imminent or if the driver appears distracted.
Why It Matters
The demonstration of FSD’s ability to correct an initial path decision comes as Tesla seeks broader regulatory approval in Europe. The company has reported that FSD Supervised was 4.1 times less likely to crash than manual driving across 100 million kilometers in European markets. While eight EU countries have approved the system, a bloc-wide vote originally scheduled for October 6 has been postponed to at least December. These safety metrics are being presented to regulators to support the expansion of Tesla's Level 2 supervised autonomy system.
Despite these positive safety narratives, the system remains under human supervision. Teslarati reporter Joey Klender noted that even heavy users continue to encounter recurring issues that prompt manual intervention, indicating that while the software can catch specific errors, it has not eliminated the need for driver oversight.
The Bottom Line
Tesla continues to leverage owner-submitted footage to demonstrate FSD’s safety capabilities, specifically its ability to react to unpredictable human drivers. The company’s push for regulatory acceptance in the EU remains contingent on further approvals, with the next major decision point now delayed until at least December.
