Tesla's FSD Beta 9 Vs Concrete Pillars - Return to the Scene of the Crime

It must have been a pretty monumental task and we kind of piggybacked on his great work by sharing with you all these instances where the FSD Beta made a whoopsie. Most were pretty benign, giving us what is probably one of the last opportunities where we can still laugh at how stupid robots are before they get better than us at driving too.

There was one in particular that grabbed everyone's attention, and for very good reason. The vision-only ADAS appeared to try and murder the car occupants by repeatedly veering toward a massive concrete pillar that was no more than four feet or so away. The driver's quick reactions meant nothing happened and he was able to laugh it off, but the incident raised much-needed red flags about just how unpredictable the system is.

To be completely fair, that section of the road is pretty strange. It's basically a one-way three-lane street with the first and second lane divided by a row of rectangular concrete columns. The marking on the asphalt makes it very clear that drivers are not to switch lanes in between the pillars, meaning you should merge to one of the two left-most lanes as soon as you get on that street if you plan on making a left turn anytime soon.

The original video was shot at night, so some people figured the FSD deserves a chance to save face by revisiting the area in broad daylight. However, it doesn't seem as though that makes any difference because, sure enough, the car's AI targeted the pillars once more.

By the looks of it, it interprets the markings flanking the pillars as just another lane, though even if that were the case, the continuous white line should keep it from trying to cross it. The weirdest and most worrying thing, though, is that it doesn't seem to acknowledge the presence of the monorail supports acting as if they're just not there.

They are so invisible to the AI that it doesn't even pick up the signs forbidding a left turn that hang on them. And just in case there was any doubt over how completely lost the system was, as the Tesla reaches the end of the lane, despite the fact the navigation clearly shows it should turn left, decides to go right instead. And, to make matters even worse, it was the wrong way up a one-way street.

Driving around a city isn't easy since there are so many things to account for. The human brain does a great job of unconsciously ignoring the less important ones and focusing on what matters, but despite its processing power and 360-degree vision, the AI can't do that yet. And the thing is, even if the system gets really good, you can never trust it 100 percent because you don't know when it might face a new "edge case" that ends very badly. Stay safe out there and keep your hands on the steering wheel (and yoke).