Russia and America might be on better terms than they used to nowadays, but we feel that, at least when it comes to the internet, Tesla’s Autopilot has the potential to stir up the crowds. For one thing, such a feature would ruin all the Russian dash cam footage.
We are, of course, kidding, as anybody in their right minds wouldn’t even blink when asked to choose between eradicating the tons of crashes that pollute Russian traffic daily and the loss of the resulting footage.
As you can imagine, the Autopilot feature has the power to prevent plenty of accidents, even in its current, Beta testing-like form. The latest example of this comes from the video below, which shows us a Model S gifted with the feature avoiding a crash on its own.
The vehicle was driving on a busy road when a driver decided it was ok to pull a 90-degree turn right in front of the EV. As the guy behind the wheel of the Tesla admits in the video description, he wasn’t paying attention at the time, so the car handled the accident avoidance on its own.
“Was travelling a little under 45 mph. There was some rain, but roads were pretty dry. I was watching stopped traffic to my right. I did not touch the brake. Car did all the work,” the man explains.
And while the speed mentioned above was enough for a less-than-light crash, the Tesla guy was also carrying a Uber passenger at the time.
He states the video doesn’t come with a soundtrack since he drives around in Washington, which has strict privacy laws about recording conversations.
This makes us think of how drama-free the Autopilot crash avoidance is - while we humans generally honk and swear in such scenarios, the car obviously returned to normal driving once the other vehicle was out of its way.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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