NHTSA Complaint #11533168 — 2021 TESLA MODEL 3

This is a report of the accident I was in on July 15, 2023 at 3:00 PM. I was going south on two lane Hwy 160 a couple south miles of Hwy 12 when I pulled out onto a wide, long pullout. When I decided to get back on the highway, I looked back to see a long line of cars coming. My Tesla’s Full Self Driving has Auto Lane Change which switches lanes for you when safe. I figured I would use Auto Lane Change to merge onto the road when safe. I already had the Tesla Navigation on. I turned on the Full Self Drive and my blinker, thinking that it would be a while before the Tesla decided it was safe to merge onto the road. However, the car started moving toward the road almost immediately. I realized that there couldn’t have been a break in traffic already. I turned in disbelief. Just then the left side of the was smashed. I looked ahead to see a SUV swerving back and forth down the road trying to regain control. Then the blur of another car. The SUV was sailing through the air, then it was sliding on its roof. I rushed to the SUV feeling like there was a good chance that people were really hurt or dead. I couldn’t see inside because of the airbags.The driver’s door wouldn’t open. I rushed around the back of the car and saw a dog getting out of the front passenger door followed by a man. The man helped his wife out. Thankfully, they were not hurt. While waiting for the tow truck, one of the fishermen who were hanging around for some reason asked me for my ID. I asked why. He said his car was in the accident and pointed across the highway to over a 15 foot embankment and to about 500 hundred yards away where I saw his car. He said that his car had been parked and was hit by the SUV. With the stress and adrenaline of the accident and because there was only my car and the SUV on the side of the road, I realized that this was the car I had seen in a blur during the whirlwind accident.