NHTSA Complaint #11479476 — 2018 TESLA MODEL 3

This defect is regarding Tesla’s FSD (beta). In the FSD mode, the car switched lanes without noticing the presence of a vehicle in the destination lane and caused a non-fatal accident. I was driving on O’Shaughnessy blvd in San Francisco around 8:50 AM. The weather was clear, and traffic was moderate. I had turned on FSD and entered my destination address. I stayed below the posted speed limit as I was new to FSD and wanted to stay extra alert. At this point, O’Shaughnessy is a single lane on each side. The lane gets wider as it nears a major intersection (Portola Drive). And then it splits into two lanes. Finally, the right lane becomes the right-turn-only lane. Per the route, the car was supposed to take a right turn at the intersection. When the lane split into two, the vehicle remained on the left for about 30 feet. Then it rapidly began to shift to the right lane by giving a signal. However, the vehicle behind me had moved into the right lane by this time. My car did not notice the vehicle as it tried to move to the right lane. It hit the other vehicle. This shift to the right lane was so rapid that I could not react to the impending collision fast enough. The other vehicle’s left-hand front fender hit my passenger door. Even as the vehicle collided, Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system failed to notice the presence of the other car. It did not give an alarm. My Tesla had all available safety warning options on. Since there was no injury, we did not file a police complaint. We notified insurance companies. This is a severe safety defect where the vehicle fails to detect the presence of another car in the lane. Not only did it proceed to change the lane, but its ADAS also did not warn of this obvious safety situation. There was no visibility issue, and vehicles traveled below the speed limit. The FSD is a safety hazard because it fails to notice a normal vehicle and switches lane.