--- title: "Man Perturbed When Self-Driving Tesla Tries to Kill Him on the Highway" description: "Fred Lambert, editor in chief of a Tesla and EV enthusiast blog, says that Full Self-Driving tried to veer him off the road at highway speed." date: "2023-09-02" modified: "2023-09-02" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/self-driving-tesla-tries-to-kill" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Self-Driving Vehicles" - "Tesla" tags: - "autopilot" - "full self-driving" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Man Perturbed When Self-Driving Tesla Tries to Kill Him on the Highway ![Fred Lambert, editor in chief of a Tesla and EV enthusiast blog, says that Full Self-Driving tried to veer him off the road at highway speed.]() *- long exposure photograph - camera mounted to the side of the car - car made in the USA - \Image: Emanuel M Schwermer/Getty Images\* ## Death Race Fred Lambert, a noted Tesla enthusiast and editor-in-chief of the electric vehicle blog *Electrek,* claims Full Self-Driving "[tried to kill" him]() while he was behind the wheel of his Model 3. Had he not intervened, Lambert says, he would have crashed at highway speed. At first, nothing was out of the ordinary during his drive to Montreal. Lambert engaged FSD and held a steady speed of 73 miles per hour. It was when the Tesla attempted to pass another car that all went to hell. "I felt FSD Beta veering aggressively to the left toward the median strip," Lambert recalled. Because he kept his hands on the steering wheel — a safety protocol that [many Tesla drivers openly flaunt]() — he was able to "steer back toward the road." "It was super scary as I almost lost control when correcting FSD Beta," Lambert said. "I was passing a vehicle. I could have crashed into it if I overcorrected." Then — ill-advisedly — Lambert re-engaged FSD and replicated the error only moments later. When he steered back into the left lane for a second time with FSD on, he wrote, the software once again "veered to the left toward the median strip" and then tried to blow through an unmarked U-turn intended only for emergency vehicles *at full speed*. Luckily, Lambert was prepared and took control in time — but it sounds like the consequences could have been catastrophic. ## Fatal Error At any rate, Lambert says the malfunction echoes how Autopilot used to accidentally swerve into an exit ramp without warning — an error he thought had long been fixed. "Tesla Autopilot used to try to take exit ramps it wasn't supposed to in the early days, but it was something that Tesla fixed a while ago," he said. "I haven't had that happen to me in years." Later, he submitted a bug report to Tesla: "Autopilot just tried to kill me, so please fix it." He seems to think this is a problem arising from FSD's latest updates, what he describes as a "new aggressive bug." That may be true, as Tesla has had to [roll back crash-causing updates]() in the past, but maybe it's time to acknowledge a bitterer truth: this tech, in its current form, is far from being safe enough to roam public streets. In other words, the world shouldn't be a playground for Tesla's beta, a sentiment that authorities are belatedly warming up to. The US [Justice Department began investigating Tesla]() last year for the dangerously misleading marketing of Autopilot, and [California has similarly cracked down on Tesla using the term Full-Self Driving](). Piling on the pressure, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also recently stepped in to [investigate an unsafe "Elon Mode" for Autopilot](). For now, Lambert has this advice: only use FSD "as intended," although you might want to consider not using it at all. **More on Tesla:** *[Elon Musk Shows Off FSD, Forced to Intervene When It Tries to Drive Through Red Light]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()