Tesla’s Autopilot feature tends to come up in the news anytime there’s a serious accident involving a Tesla vehicle. And with good reason, there have been a number of incidents where the Autopilot feature seemingly didn’t work as advertised. In what is perhaps the most well-known example, a Tesla driver in 2016 was tragically killed when his Model S — with the Autopilot feature engaged at the time — slammed into the side of a semi-truck.
Since then, Tesla’s Autopilot feature has improved considerably. And while the feature is by no means close to perfect, the reality is that we don’t often hear stories about Autopilot actually saving lives. After all, when there’s no accident, there’s no story. Unless, of course, it happens to be caught on video.
That said, a Model 3 owner recently posted a video which shows how Tesla’s Autopilot feature prevented what could have otherwise been a serious crash. In fact, the Model 3 owner credits the software with saving his life.
“I’m minding my own business in the right-hand lane,” the driver recalls. “I’ve got Autopilot set for 102 km/hr and some dumbass comes from out of nowhere, probably doing 150 or 160 km/hr, and I guess his intention was to squeeze between myself and the car that was in the left hand lane. Anyhow, Autopilot took evasive action and probably saved my life today.”
The full video can be seen below.
Incidentally, another feel-good Autopilot story surfaced just about two months ago. If you recall, a Tesla owner back in June said that Autopilot prevented him from getting into a crash when he fell asleep on the road.
“There’s lots of “bad” news about Teslas w/ autopilot crashing,” Tesla owner Anton Zaslavski wrote on Twitter this past June. “Just to show the other side too: I once fell asleep driving home late at night on the highway (w/ autopilot on) and got woken up by it beeping + turning off music to wake me up. Would have prob been dead without it.”
