Tesla in full self-driving mode plows through deer without even slowing down

Man whose Tesla just wiped out an animal: “FSD works great!”

Animal destroyer

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system is far from flawless – and it is certainly not autonomous, as it must be constantly monitored by a human driver. That said, you’d expect it to do more than literally nothing if you encounter an animal on the road.

If noted by Jalopnika video shared on X-formerly Twitter shows dashcam footage of a Tesla Model 3 moments before absolutely wiping out a deer at full speed that wandered against traffic, with the vehicle making no attempt to slow down.

The uploader, whose name is Paul S, says his car was using full self-driving mode at the time. What’s even more baffling, he says, is that the driver assistance software didn’t stop after the collision. Instead, it continued to steam forward as if nothing had happened.

“A big surprise after getting a dozen false stops every day!” Paul wrote.

Damage control

The deer attack left his car with a large dent in the hood, scratches on his windshield and possible more serious damage to the frame.

“I am now experiencing the worst side of Tesla service,” Paul wrote. “I can’t even get a quote for insurance. Nearest appointments not until January.’

But in true Tesla-devotee fashion, Paul clarified that he still thinks “FSD works great!”

“This is just an edge case,” he argued, adding that he is “insanely grateful” to the automaker.

But it’s really not an ‘edge case’. Deer attacks are common, it is estimated 2.1 million vehicle collisions with the animal occurring in the US every year. The poor creatures don’t know any better, but they pose a legitimate, everyday threat to the safety of motorists, especially at night.

See the light

In short, commonly available driving software – especially if it goes by the name ‘Full Self-Driving’ – should be equipped to reliably deal with these types of incidents.

There’s probably nothing a human driver could have done to avoid the collision, but he could have at least applied the brakes to soften the impact – something FSD completely failed to do.

At the insistence of Elon Musk, Tesla’s driving assistance software only uses cameras to sense the environment, which, as shown here, has clear disadvantages in poor visibility.

That’s why its competitors use LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, to complement their cameras by using laser pulses to create a 3D map of the environment. Musk famously considers LiDAR as a “stool” and refuses to use it, which critics say is why its driving software is stuck in a lower classification of autonomy than Waymo’s. His stubbornness puts his customers – and the poor, wayward deer – in danger.

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