Tesla Analyst Tries Full Self-Driving, Has to Stop It From Crashing

"My quick intervention was absolutely required to avoid an otherwise certain accident."

Certain Accident

For roughly a decade now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made so-far empty promises about "solving" autonomous driving.

The company's erroneously named "Full Self-Driving" driver assistance software in particular has repeatedly drawn flak for endangering Tesla drivers daring enough to use it on public roads.

Now, Truist Securities analyst William Stein — who has a hold rating on Tesla's stock, meaning a recommendation to neither buy nor sell the stock — says he recently took the feature for a spin, finding that the tech simply isn't ready for prime time.

As Bloomberg reports, Stein almost rear-ended another vehicle that had "only partly completed a right turn."

"My quick intervention was absolutely required to avoid an otherwise certain accident," he wrote in a note to clients on Monday.

Eyes Off the Road

Stein's experience echoes plenty of other close calls and collisions using Tesla's driver assistance software, many of which have proved fatal — prompting an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

And despite numerous over-the-air updates being issued to owners who were willing to spend up to $8,000 for the privilege of testing the system, the software is still woefully unprepared for the real world.

While driving around New York suburbs, Stein was shocked that he was able to turn his "head completely away from the road" without triggering any safety features: "The system continued for 20-40 seconds before issuing a warning," he wrote.

FSD also failed to pull over the vehicle when a police officer hand signaled for Stein to do so to allow a funeral procession to pass.

Stein did give Tesla some credit, concluding that FSD was "truly amazing, but not even close to ‘solving’ autonomy," referring to Musk's repeated promises of enabling actual self-driving.

It's a glaring report considering that Musk continues to double down on self-driving tech. The mercurial CEO recently promised to unveil a "robotaxi" that would presumably rely on FSD-like software.

But the robotaxi event has already been delayed from August to October, raising flags among Tesla bears. As far as we know, the company hasn't even applied for regulatory approval for a self-driving taxi service.

In short, despite many years of public testing — courtesy of paying customers, not trained engineers — FSD is still pretty rough around the edges, which could bode badly for Musk going all in on autonomous driving.

More on FSD: Tesla Stock Slaughtered After Its August "Robotaxi" Event Falls Apart