Terrifying moment self-driving Tesla turns onto train tracks with AI CEO in car
Jesse Lyu, CEO of AI gadget startup Rabbit, recently experienced a terrifying encounter with Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ technology when his car drove onto the tracks.
A self-described “satisfied customer,” Lyu recently shared SFGate how impressed he had been with the system. However, on Thursday, that confidence was shaken when his 15-minute drive took a dangerous turn… literally.
While making his routine drive from his apartment to his downtown office, Lyu turned on Tesla’s “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” features after leaving his parking garage.
Designed for “minimal driver intervention,” these advanced driver assistance systems can steer, stop and accelerate on highways and city streets.
But when Lyu’s Tesla attempted to turn left onto Colorado Avenue, the vehicle veered off course and onto a light rail track intended solely for LA’s Metro E Line trains.
Barriers on either side of the tracks prevented any immediate correction, leaving Lyu stuck on a path intended for trains.
Visibly shaken, Lyu recounted the experience in a video interview, describing the “crazy” moment when an oncoming train stopped a block away.
During a routine 15-minute drive to his office, Jesse Lyu activated Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD functions. While the systems initially functioned as intended, they took a dangerous turn when the car entered a light rail track instead of making a left turn onto Colorado Avenue in Los Angeles.
Jesse Lyu, CEO of AI gadget startup Rabbit, recently had a terrifying encounter with Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ technology
Forced to act quickly, Lyu disabled the FSD system and ran a red light at the next intersection to escape the train’s path.
Despite his harrowing experience, Lyu says he shared his story not to criticize Tesla, but to draw attention to a serious flaw in the system.
After reaching his office safely, Lyu uploaded dashcam footage of the incident to X, where it has since been viewed more than 690,000 times.
The video provoked mixed reactions. Some commentators criticized Lyu for not taking control of the car sooner, suggesting he could have maneuvered back into the correct lane.
However, Lyu explained that by the time he realized the mistake, concrete barriers made any correction impossible. He also noted that holding the steering wheel during self-driving turns is impractical due to the unpredictable angles the car often takes.
The incident highlights ongoing concerns about Tesla’s self-driving technology.
Unlike Waymo, which uses LiDAR for precise navigation, Tesla relies on a camera-based system, bringing what many consider an experimental version of autonomous technology to regular drivers.
Tesla offers two main driver assistance features: Autopilot, which handles basic lane control and cruise control, and Full Self-Driving (FSD), which offers more advanced navigation capabilities but is not fully autonomous.
Lyu’s company Rabbit has invented the R1, a walkie-talkie-style gadget with a built-in chatbot and is being hailed as the ‘iPhone of artificial intelligence’
Pictured: Lyu’s message to Elon Musk on X
Tesla emphasizes that drivers must remain alert and keep their hands on the wheel at all times.
In 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that the technology would surpass human driving by the end of the year, and in 2023 he claimed that the technology would be so advanced that human driving would seem strange.
Over the years, videos of Tesla owners testing the system’s limits – often hands-free driving – have gone viral, with Musk himself regularly sharing these clips.
Lyu clarified that his intention was not to share the images for personal promotion, but to draw attention to a potentially critical error.
“I’m just trying to share this video with Tesla and the team,” he said. “This is a serious problem, and no matter how a human responds, the autopilot algorithm should never put any of its vehicles on the train track. That’s just fundamentally wrong.’
Despite the scare, Lyu continues to invest in Tesla’s self-driving features, for which he paid $10,000.
‘I like to try it; I like using it,” Lyu said. “The reason I’m sharing this is because as a customer I want this feature to get better.”
This incident follows another Tesla failure, where a vehicle in Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode collided with a deer in the middle of the road.
The driver, identified only as Paul S., did not reveal when or where the crash occurred or which Tesla model it involved.
However, dashcam footage shows the car driving at full speed on a clear two-lane road at night. Moments later, the deer abruptly appears in the path of the car.
The Tesla rammed directly into the deer, without stopping or slowing down “even after hitting the deer at full speed,” Paul said.