Tesla Model S Gets In A Fender-Bender In China, Driver Blames Autopilot

This time, the Tesla Autopilot accident we are reporting took place in China. Fortunately for all involved, the incident did not bring injuries to anyone, and both vehicles were roadworthy to drive away from the accident, as the crash was just a fender-bender.

According to Car News China, the incident took place on a highway near Beijing, and the driver of the Tesla was also using a dash cam. The footage has already been uploaded to YouTube, and you can see it embedded below, but the images are not of the highest video quality.

As you can observe from the video, the Tesla Model S was reportedly driving on Autopilot (it is unconfirmed at the moment) on the leftmost lane of the highway.

Since China drives on the right-hand side of the road, this lane is reserved for overtaking and should only be used when passing other cars. Otherwise, drivers must use the lanes closest to the right-hand side of the road.

The Tesla Model S was following another car on the highway, a black Audi Q5 that you can observe at the beginning of the video. Less than ten seconds after the start of the video, the Audi switches the lane and an obstacle is revealed, in the form of a road-side warning triangle. Behind the triangle sits a black Volkswagen Santana.

The Tesla Model S shows no sign of slowing down, and keeps driving towards the stranded Volkswagen car, which had its hazard lights on at the time of the incident.

While we cannot see what the driver was doing just before the incident, the Tesla Model S does turn to mitigate the impact, but it fails by just a few inches, and sideswipes the VW Santana.

The driver claims that he had to intervene to prevent a more serious incident, but the circumstances of this accident make us believe that he was not paying any attention to the road ahead. Tesla has not commented this incident.