Tesla driver says he was asleep and using FSD when he crashed into highway patrol cars

Video shows the crash that injured two CHP officers responding to an earlier incident on I-80.

Video shows the crash that injured two CHP officers responding to an earlier incident on I-80.

After this horrific crash involving a Tesla driver who said he was asleep and using the driver assist mode, the California Highway Patrol warns that “Despite its name, full self-driving is not fully autonomous. Technology does not relieve drivers of their responsibility to safely operate their vehicles.”

Video released by CHP shows the Tesla speeding past flares, cones, and emergency lights where officers were on the scene of an earlier accident, before ramming into the back of a parked patrol vehicle. CHP says two officers were seriously injured in the accident and taken to a hospital.

Following numerous collisions with parked emergency vehicles, NHTSA launched an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot software in 2021. It eventually issued a report finding the driver-assist features didn’t do enough to keep drivers engaged, linking them to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths when both the system and driver failed to respond.

Tesla released an update for Autopilot in 2023 adding more controls and alerts to prompt drivers to be in full control of the car when Autosteer is enabled, but NHTSA then had to open another investigation into whether those changes went far enough.