A Tesla owner reported crashing his Tesla Cybertruck into a pole after hitting a curb while using Full Self-Driving (FSD), Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system that Elon Musk claims will operate without supervision this year.
The incident is now going viral.
Jonathan Challinger, a Florida-based software developer at Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, shared a viral post on X detailing the crash involving his Tesla Cybertruck.
According to Challinger, he was using Tesla’s FSD system—a suite of advanced driver assistance features that still require driver supervision—when the accident occurred. Despite Tesla’s claims that FSD will soon function without supervision, it currently requires human oversight.
He explained that he was driving with FSD v13.2.4 in the right lane, which was ending and merging left. However, the Cybertruck failed to merge in time, hit the curb, and crashed into a pole.
He said that he failed to react in time and take control of the Tesla Cybertruck:
It failed to merge out of a lane that was ending (there was no one on my left) and made no attempt to slow down or turn until it had already hit the curb.
The Tesla Cybertruck then collided with a light post, but fortunately, the driver walked away without any injuries.
To be fair, the post was in an unusual spot, but Tesla’s Full Self-Driving should have handled the situation better. The system should have either merged lanes properly or, at the very least, avoided hitting the curb or the post (images via TroyTeslike).
Challinger shared his experience as a “public service announcement” to remind drivers to stay alert when using Tesla’s FSD and avoid complacency:
“Big fail on my part, obviously. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Pay attention. It can happen. I follow Tesla and FSD closely and hadn’t heard of any accidents on V13 before this. It’s easy to get complacent now—don’t.”
This could be the first recorded crash involving Tesla’s latest FSD v13, which CEO Elon Musk has called “mind-blowing” and a major step toward achieving “unsupervised self-driving” by the end of the year.
Despite Musk and Tesla advocates frequently posting videos claiming FSD is on the verge of becoming fully autonomous, real-world data suggests Tesla is still years away from reaching that milestone.
