# Tesla autopilot prevents accident with coyote



## casudhoff (Sep 17, 2019)

Fall is here and we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and take a day trip to nearby Louisville, Kentucky.

After an amazing day of exploring the city, (and even getting free charging in one of the parking garages) it was around 8:30 pm and dark; it time to head back home. We entered our home address into the navigation and hopped on I-71N and began the roughly 90 minute drive home. At about the halfway mark, on a very dark section of 71-north, without warning, a coyote suddenly decided to try and cross the highway. The creature and I locked eyes and I braced for what I thought would be an inevitable accident. Mind you, this all happened within 1-2 seconds.

Luckily for my family, Tesla Autopilot was able to see the coyote, swerve the car to miss it, and correctly put us right back into our lane. Again, this all happened in the matter of mere seconds. The car reacted before I could and anticipated the correct course of action. Because of Tesla, my family wasn't involved in an accident on the expressway on a dark, cold fall night.

What a moment. What a car! In addition to the safety features, I've traveled over 11,000 miles in almost 5 months of ownership and the car continues to amaze me. Thank you to the team at Tesla for creating the most advanced and safest car you can drive on the planet.

Thank you, Tesla!


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

If autopilot was truly driving here, it's the first I've seen it detect and avoid small animals. Excellent.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

Can you tell more about how far back the car was you passed? It had been 15 seconds since you passed him. I don't intend to sound judgy, but any reason you were still driving in the left lane? I assume you weren't on NOA, but simply TACC and or Autosteer?


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## kataleen (Jan 28, 2019)

At night if there are no cars anywhere behind, I usually drive in the center lane too. Simply because I have more options to swerve in case there is something on the road. If there are barriers on the left side, then I usually stay in the right lane.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

kataleen said:


> At night if there are no cars anywhere behind, I usually drive in the center lane too. Simply because I have more options to swerve in case there is something on the road. If there are barriers on the left side, then I usually stay in the right lane.


Agreed. When traffic is light and there's nobody catching up to me, I'll not get over to the right for any of several reasons.

If the right lane is not as smooth as the left lane
Going around a left bend. It's a shorter distance to stay in the left lane. 
If I notice that I'll eventually catch up to more cars ahead.
Mostly, just to wait to leave a very large gap between me and the car I passed.


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## casudhoff (Sep 17, 2019)

GDN said:


> Can you tell more about how far back the car was you passed? It had been 15 seconds since you passed him. I don't intend to sound judgy, but any reason you were still driving in the left lane? I assume you weren't on NOA, but simply TACC and or Autosteer?


I need to pull the side cameras to confirm but i am guessing 3-5 car lengths behind me.

Car is a 19 M3P w/ FSD, NOA was enabled, and car was traveling at 75+ MPH


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## casudhoff (Sep 17, 2019)

JWardell said:


> If autopilot was truly driving here, it's the first I've seen it detect and avoid small animals. Excellent.


NOA was enabled and I did NOT correct the vehicle. I wish I could take credit for seeing, and having a reaction time quick enough to avoid this on my own. However, very thankful that a crash was avoided.


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## ElectricBiker (Nov 21, 2019)

so an evasive maneuver like this is only available in car with FSD?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

ElectricBiker said:


> so an evasive maneuver like this is only available in car with FSD?


That's a good question. Safety features are standard, but would the car have been able to successfully fight against your steering inputs to actually perform an avoidance maneuver like this?


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