This single incident tells us everything we need to know about Tesla’s self driving problem.
Picture this: A Tesla robotaxi sits at an intersection, turn signal blinking, ready to make a left turn. Instead, it drives straight into oncoming traffic for six whole seconds. The steering wheel actually wobbles as the car’s computer gets confused about what to do.
This is not as minute as a software glitch. It’s a near miss that could have killed someone.
Why does this matter so much? Elon Musk has bet Tesla’s entire future on self driving cars. With Tesla’s regular car sales dropping, he desperately needs this technology to work. He’s promised millions of autonomous Teslas by next year, but if cars can’t handle basic left turns without driving into traffic, how realistic is that timeline?
What makes this worse is the competition. Companies like Waymo have been running actual robotaxis for paying customers without safety drivers for years. They took their time, tested carefully and built trust gradually. Tesla seems to be rushing to catch up but the technology clearly isn’t ready.
The technical problem here is telling. Tesla uses mostly cameras instead of the expensive laser sensors that competitors use. When the steering wheel ‘wobbles’ it means the car’s brain is literally confused about what it’s seeing. That’s terrifying when you’re dealing with two ton vehicles moving at highway speeds.
The scariest part? Tesla fans in these test rides mostly shrugged off these dangerous incidents. They’re so invested in the company’s vision that they can’t see the obvious safety problems right in front of them.
This whole situation shows what happens when an unplanned approach meets real-world transportation. In software, bugs are annoying. In self driving cars, bugs can be deadly.
Tesla needs to slow down and get this right before someone gets hurt.
“In one instance, a robotaxi drove into a lane meant for oncoming traffic for about 6 seconds. It had pulled into an intersection in its left-turn lane with its turn blinker on. Then the steering wheel wobbled momentarily, and instead of turning it proceeded straight into the lane meant for oncoming traffic, prompting a honk from a car behind it.”