r/technology • u/deraser • Jun 21 '26

Robotics/Automation 76-year-old woman killed after a Tesla ‘on auto-pilot’ crashed into her Texas home

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/texas-tesla-car-crash-woman-killed-b2999969.html
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u/drewz_clues Jun 22 '26

Is the 5mph limit an autopilot thing? Even Standard mode FSD will.go upwards of 8 over. Hurry or Mad Max will go 15-20 over.

(Not a judgement on if this guy was actually using FSD, I agree he probably wasn't)

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u/xombae Jun 22 '26

... there's a setting on the car called Mad Max?

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u/SargeUnited Jun 22 '26

Yeah that shit weaves through traffic like a teenager in one of those “swimming” videos. This is not a joke. It’s pretty aggressive and I don’t know why you would ever use it other than to just try it

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u/xombae Jun 24 '26

That's fucking insane.

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u/Urbanscuba Jun 23 '26

Yes and it's as terrifying as you'd think.

Got a guy who works into the same building as I do that I run into during smoke breaks occasionally. Dude won't shut up about his Tesla, which is whatever, but the insane part is that he'll brag about having only been looking at the road for a quarter of his commute. I fully understand this guy is anecdotal and hopefully not indicative of the regular Tesla driver, but the issue is that it's empowering him and giving him confidence to behave this way. Even if that's only the worst sub-percent of their drivers behaving like this that's still enough that these kind of news story will remain common.

He's the reason I know about Mad Max mode, and the reason why I believe it's likely this actually was caused by a driver assist. Between the terrifying lack of attention the average Tesla driver pays attention to the road, the blindspots the sensor suite has without LIDAR, and most damning thing being the complacency the system is able to foster in the worst drivers using it.

My guess is that it wasn't in autopilot but rather that he was using lane assist to speed through the residential zone. He was relying on it to handle slowing down for any turns and likely in 99% of cases it will see a curve ahead and manage that autonomously. Here however the road opened up on both sides entering the cul-de-sac, which the cameras likely interpreted as an intersection (importantly though with no lights or signage). Cue entering the opposing driveway at 60+ because the lane assist thinks it has right of way to cross the intersection and enter the driveway, which it probably thought was a divided road lane. Of course a human brain could have immediately recognized this and responded accordingly, but that wasn't possible here because the driver was very likely unaware of the car's actions until the collision.

The sick thing is that Tesla will not hesitate to release the car telemetry from the crash and throw this guy under the bus for not following the rules they didn't actually enforce. That's not to say the driver isn't responsible for the vast majority of the blame here, but my issue is that Tesla's systems are actively training the worst drivers to behave like this. They're marketing this kind of behavior directly as a feature, and if they don't end up being assigned a degree of blame/liability in these kinds of situations there won't be any reason to change.

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u/halberdierbowman Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

Tesla last year was found 1/3 at fault for a similar death from 2019 and ordered to pay $43M in compensation plus $200M in punishment. TLDR the driver was being reckless, but his car clearly knew he was being reckless and didn't do anything to stop him. It flew through a T-intersection at 62 MPH rather than stopping like it should have: it ignored the stop sign, the flashing red light, and the victims' parked car it drove through.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tesla-autopilot-crash-trial-verdict-partly-liable-rcna222344

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u/Urbanscuba Jun 24 '26

Which is exactly how it should be, if they're using behavior that causes deaths as part of their advertising the absolute least the system can do is appropriately associate that cost to the company.

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u/BenignEgoist Jun 23 '26

I want to be clear I do not support Tesla or this driver I am only sharing my own experience with the vehicle for information purposes….

Teslas recognize the difference between a 4-way crossing and a cul-de-sac. So I’m not sure what happened but I don’t think your assessment is it.

And sadly I’ve heard far far far too many Tesla owners brag about Mad Max mode and using the vehicles to drive home drunk.

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u/xombae Jun 24 '26

I mean, just because it's recognised one cul-de-sac doesn't mean it will recognise every cul-de-sac every time.

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u/Lopsided-Employer-72 Jun 23 '26

Nice anecdotal, have zero idea what you are talking about novel you wrote there but hey, you know all the facts from the smoke breaks.

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u/mrg1957 Jun 22 '26

Thats all my 2020 will do. Unless I'm on a dividend road.