I hit a Tree in my Tesla Model 3

[Stirling Silvr]

During the February 15th Eastern US Ice/snow storm I was on my way to rescue a friend from his 4 day power out home.
It had just turned dark and pouring down freezing rain adding more ice to trees with 2 in from previous ice storm. My enhanced Autopilot decided it couldn't see well enough and disengaged, At about the same time my automatic headlights dimmed for a car coming the opposite direction, reducing visibility more, The other car went off pavement and back (dodging limbs from downed tree) blinding me for a second and this tree hanging from overhead wires was 2 feet from bumper. Went under like bowling ball at about 30 mph. Crushed hood smashed windshield and roof glass. $26000 damage, no airbags deployed, no injuries! Thank God and Tesla! ( Tesla still in body shop 04/19 21)

 

[KenC]

Terribly bad luck, glad you're safe. Sorry about the car. Hope your friend appreciated the effort.

 

[smartypnz]

Good title for a CW song. Anyway, hope all is fine.

 

[brkaus]

Why use EAP in pouring down freezing rain with bad road conditions?

 

[jjrandorin]

At least you were more fortunate than these two: ‘No one was driving the car’: 2 men dead after fiery Tesla crash in Spring, officials say

(moderator note: the original thread title this OP made was "tesla vs tree". The reason I changed it, instead of just adding context as I sometimes do, is that the original thread title implied it might be tied to the thread you reference, but this is a separate post / situation altogether.)

 

[SlimJim]

Why use EAP in pouring down freezing rain with bad road conditions?

He still thanked Tesla.
So he is an early adopter to the core I think.

 

[jjrandorin]

(moderator note: moved posts on different subject than this crash to the thread for that discussion, which is here:

2 die in Tesla crash - Report says "nobody was in driver seat" )

 

[toolman335]

I've had my car for two years now. There has yet to be a single reason that I can come up with to get FSD. There's no way that this generation of cars will get approval for true self driving. None.
The cameras get foggy/dirty far too often anyway.
I love everything else about the car and I'll be a Tesla owner for life!

 

[nvx1977]

I've had my car for two years now. There has yet to be a single reason that I can come up with to get FSD. There's no way that this generation of cars will get approval for true self driving. None.
The cameras get foggy/dirty far too often anyway.
I love everything else about the car and I'll be a Tesla owner for life!

Not sure about "The cameras get foggy/dirty far too often anyway." I've had my Model 3 for over 3 years now, and very rarely do I get a notification that the cameras are obstructed. The B pillar cameras sometimes complain when I'm driving on poorly lit areas (the residential roads leading to my house). At very low speeds, sometimes rain can trigger the same warning for the B pillar cams. The front cameras are kept clean by the wipers. The repeater cameras are shielded.

In bad snowstorms, the obstruction rate is a bit higher, but those are the kinds of condition where you probably don't want to turn on AP/FSD anyway.

All that aside, the car would not attempt to self drive if vision is obstructed. It would warn you to take over or not even turn on.

For me, even if Tesla's not approved (or capable) of level 5 autonomy, I'm perfectly happy with paying attention while the system does a pretty darn good job self driving in most situations.

 

[jjrandorin]

(moderator note: moved posts on different subject than this crash to the thread for that discussion, which is here:

2 die in Tesla crash - Report says "nobody was in driver seat" )

(moderator note: I will be moving every post thats on the other accident to the thread I quoted above, so please just post that discussion there to start with, as this thread is not related to that situation)