Tesla Autopilot Detects Crash And Steers Around Car To Reduce Damage

Tesla Model 3 owner Andrew Cochrane claims that the Autopilot feature on his car may have not only detected that the car behind him was about to be rear-ended, but also steered around the car ahead of him to avoid a further pileup.

As the story goes, Andrew was driving on US Route 1 in Los Angeles, California when traffic started to back up. Unfortunately, cars behind him weren't paying enough attention to the slowing traffic, and a collision was imminent. 

Andrew was able to stop his Tesla in time, but it seemed the car behind him was not going to be able to stop completely without hitting the Model 3. However, we'll never know what would have happened since another car was coming very fast from behind the two cars.

The second oncoming car slammed into the car behind Andrew's Model 3, which then hit the Model 3. In fact, it seems the car was still at highway speeds when the crash occurred. Watching the replay in the video above shows that the collision was pretty catastrophic to the car behind Andrew, to say the least.

Meanwhile, the Model 3's Tesla Autopilot feature was aware of the oncoming vehicle even though it was two vehicles behind. As the second car was about to rear-end the car behind Andrew, Autopilot steered the Model 3 out of the lineup of cars so that it wouldn't also crash into the car in front of it, which would have likely caused a further pileup.

While there's no way to know for sure exactly what happened here or Autopilot's role in it, it appears as though the technology was working to keep the Model 3 from getting into another collision during which it would have rear-ended the car in front of it. 

At any rate, everyone involved in the accident walked away. The owner of the car that caused the collision paid for everything. Andrew's Model 3 was in the shop for months, but it was able to be repaired. The other two cars were considered totaled.

See More Related Tesla Autopilot Stories:

Woman Gives Birth In Tesla Driving On Autopilot

Watch How Tesla Autopilot Allegedly Saved This Tesla Owner's Life

There are 20 other clips in the video above. Check it out and then leave us your takeaways in the comment section below.

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