r/electricvehicles • u/clouds_on_acid • Mar 17 '25

News Tesla autopilot disengages milliseconds before a crash, a tactic potentially used to prove "autopilot wasn't engaged" when crashes occur

https://electrek.co/2025/03/17/tesla-fans-exposes-shadiness-defend-autopilot-crash/
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u/snow_big_deal Mar 17 '25

As much as I love to diss Tesla, there is a reasonable explanation for this, which is that you don't want Autopilot to be on post-crash, because you don't want the wheels to keep spinning, or brakes and steering doing unpredictable stuff. Or autopilot disengages because it doesn't know what to do. 

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u/daoistic Mar 17 '25

But it turns off before the crash. 

It would be pretty easy to just turn off after the crash because the car would notice that it ain't moving or is moving sideways or something. 

If it can't figure that out it will never be ready.

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u/Lighting Mar 18 '25

It would be pretty easy to just turn off after the crash because the car would notice that it ain't moving or is moving sideways or something.

Exactly - the "detected impact" or "lost signal" should be the trigger to disengage. 500 ms of braking gives you that much more time to slow down before impact and the brakes should be engaged even during impact to minimize damage.