A Cybertruck on Autopilot slammed into a light pole, and it went viral
Its driver blames the car and themselves in the crash.
A Florida man recently shared an image on social media showing his Cybertruck crashed head-first into a light pole. The image is grist for the mill of Cybertruck haters, but there’s a more profound concern: the vehicle did this to itself.
The driver used Tesla’s self-driving mode, which handles the vehicle's basic functionality, like steering and braking. Unfortunately, the driver wasn’t paying attention, and the rest is history.
Related: Model 3 vs. Model Y: Which Tesla should you buy? FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
What happened?
The now-totaled Cybertruck was driving on what Jonathan Challinger, the software developer from Florida, says was an empty road. The image he shared on social media suggests he was driving at night, possibly very late.
Challinger says his Cybertruck "failed to merge out of a lane that was ending and made no attempt to slow down.” Sleuths have discovered where the crash happened, and the pole does appear to be in an awkward spot on a curb that juts into the road near a crosswalk. The lane has arrows indicating it will end well ahead of the pole and curb, but we imagine that even humans paying attention sometimes have trouble merging out of the lane before they are forced to stop to avoid hitting the pole.
"I don't expect [FSD] to be infallible, but I definitely didn't have a utility pole in my face while driving slowly on an empty road on my bingo card,” he added.
Challinger says his Cybertruck was on FSD (full self-driving) version 13.2.4.
Related: Musk says Tesla unsupervised robotaxi is coming this June
Who’s to blame?
Challinger admits he was “complacent” in the crash, and it doesn’t seem to be the first time he has allowed Tesla’s Autopilot feature to take the wheel. In a social media post from January, Challinger muses, "Sometimes I decide to go somewhere and turn on Tesla FSD, and then I forget where I decided to go, and then it starts turning into Taco Bell or whatever, and I'm like wtf is it doing and then I'm like oh right Taco Bell.”
He admits the crash was a “big fail” and accepts his role in allowing Autopilot to act autonomously and unsupervised.
When version 13 of FSD launched, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it was “mind-blowing” and promised it would be a big step toward unsupervised self-driving before the end of 2025. This has caused many who want to be on the bleeding edge of unsupervised, autonomous self-driving technology to take unnecessary risks.
Final thoughts
In a comedic sense, this story has it all: a Florida man, a tech guy with a Cybertruck, poor city planning, autonomous driving, and Taco Bell shoutouts. It’s gold.
As compassionate humans, we’re happy Challinger escaped unharmed. His was a serious accident, autonomous driving or not, and he’s lucky to be alive.
This incident distills to one thing: the driver not paying attention.
It’s important to note that while Musk and Tesla influencers hype full self-driving for Tesla vehicles, the promise of unsupervised FSD has not been realized. Drivers must pay attention, even if the vehicle handles everything they don't want to do, like navigation, steering, accelerating, and braking.
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Related: Most Tesla drivers won’t get self-driving without a hardware upgrade
