# Question about accident avoidance



## Squally (Oct 20, 2021)

I've talked to Tesla and searched and can't get a good answer about whether a Tesla would be able to help avoid an accident in a scenario where the Tesla driver is entering traffic from a driveway onto a highly trafficked road. If the Tesla driver did not see someone coming from the left or right and started to pull out into traffic and would otherwise hit the side of a car as it passes in front of it or pull out and not give the other driver enough time to stop and they hit the front end. Does anyone know?


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## DocScott (Mar 6, 2019)

I very much doubt a Tesla would prevent that accident. Setting aside the FSD beta, which is not what you're describing, it doesn't check for cross-traffic like that. If you're driving a Tesla you've got a chance of it doing something useful to avoid or reduce the severity of an accident if something suddenly happens in front of you. But as far as I know there's currently no emergency safety system in the Tesla to prevent a t-bone collision.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Squally said:


> I've talked to Tesla and searched and can't get a good answer about whether a Tesla would be able to help avoid an accident in a scenario where the Tesla driver is entering traffic from a driveway onto a highly trafficked road. If the Tesla driver did not see someone coming from the left or right and started to pull out into traffic and would otherwise hit the side of a car as it passes in front of it or pull out and not give the other driver enough time to stop and they hit the front end. Does anyone know?


No, it will not.

Most of the current active safety features are designed around highway driving. It will be unlikely to detect a pending impact in the scenario you've stated.

Indeed, in the scenario you state, I don't think there's any action that it actually _could_ take. I guess it could ignore the accelerator being pressed, but "Obstacle Aware Acceleration" is only meant to lessen the speed of an impact, not prevent one (and it currently only worries about obstacles directly in front, not approaching from the side).

https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Squally said:


> I've talked to Tesla and searched and can't get a good answer about whether a Tesla would be able to help avoid an accident in a scenario where the Tesla driver is entering traffic from a driveway onto a highly trafficked road. If the Tesla driver did not see someone coming from the left or right and started to pull out into traffic and would otherwise hit the side of a car as it passes in front of it or pull out and not give the other driver enough time to stop and they hit the front end. Does anyone know?


Most likely scenario is it wouldn't do anything at all unless you try to pull out with an oncoming car _right there_. Then it might scream at you and stomp the brakes.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

JasonF said:


> Most likely scenario is it wouldn't do anything at all unless you try to pull out with an oncoming car _right there_. Then it might scream at you and stomp the brakes.


Or scream at you while it impacts the other car.


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