Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Ghost in the dark

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

Adopado

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2019
7,825
6,374
Scotland
This experience raised the hairs on the back of my neck!

I was driving in darkness along an unlit country road approaching a narrow bridge. The bridge has traffic light control so it only takes cars in one direction at a time. There was no other traffic on the road but you obviously still need to stop.

The light was red and I was drawing to a halt at the line a few feet in front of it. All was dark around me and the traffic light was showing on the screen visualisation. I was surprised to see a man in dark clothing walking towards me along the verge. He stopped and stood just in front of my front wing under the traffic light. This was on the screen of course but when I looked intently into the shadows I fully expected to see someone... but there was nobody there! I kept looking from the windscreen to the visualisation to check in case the man had ducked to the side. Despite realising that it was 99% just a screen abberation I found myself checking that the door lock symbol was showing!

Maybe a Tesla can see into the spirit world!😉
 
Are you definitely sure that no one was there? I've seen one of the FSD beta videos (below) where the cars camera capabilities were quite remarkable, and if you didn't know a person was there, you wouldn't have seen them, but the car did.

Try around the 4 minutes mark
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Adopado
Are you definitely sure that no one was there? I've seen one of the FSD beta videos (below) where the cars camera capabilities were quite remarkable, and if you didn't know a person was there, you wouldn't have seen them, but the car did.

Try around the 4 minutes mark
It was a traffic light on a single central fairly thick post. Not actually that high. When I looked carefully I could see that “the man” was exactly in line of the post. Traffic lights are usually represented as hanging in the air but in this instance the car also represented the post as a separate item (I think). In the dark on an empty road it was still pretty spooky! (Also the verge was very narrow and bounded by a wire fence so there was nowhere for a person to easily dodge away...and “he” remained stationary on screen.)
 
A couple of weeks ago I pulled up by the side of the road with a mature tree on the edge of the pavement about three feet in front of me and to the left. It was about 10.30am so obviously daylight and good weather. Not only did the visualisation see the tree as a person, but the tree started to cross the road, turned back and tried to cross again.

I get that the software isn’t perfect, but to mistake a 50ft tree for a moving person takes some doing!
 
  • Funny
Reactions: Adopado