A man in Santa Monica, California took to social network site X to share footage of his Tesla in Full Self Driving steering right onto some train tracks. It’s a shocking example of how partially autonomous driving technologies are still far from perfect, let alone the fully autonomous attempts being made by other companies.

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The man, Jesee Lyu, who is the founder and CEO of a tech company, so we assume he understands systems like Full Self Driving better than most, shared the Tesla’s recorded footage of the event he said really shook him up. That’s understandable considering a train was on the track at the time.

In the beginning of the footage the Tesla sits at a red light, waiting to turn left onto a street where light rail tracks are in the median. Once there’s a green turn arrow, the electric car starts turning. But instead of getting into the single lane of traffic, it turns onto the tracks.

We’re going to guess the car mistook the curbing on the side of the train tracks for a painted line in the road, believing it was a second travel lane in the same direction. To be fair, some human drivers make mistakes like this, even though it’s a pretty idiotic one.

Lyu said he couldn’t just drive over the curb, but when he was approaching another red light and the Tesla slowed to stop, he could see a train approaching from behind. Panicking, he thankfully waited until pedestrians finished crossing in front of him, then ran the red light to get out of the way of the train.

This is what scares us about autonomous cars sold without any way for a human driver to take over manually. Sometimes technology glitches out or just doesn’t work right. Being able to take over like Lyu did could be the difference between a tragedy and just a close call.

Image via Tesla

By Steven Symes

Steven Symes is an accomplished automotive journalist with a passion for all things related to cars. His extensive knowledge and love for the automotive world shine through in his writing, which covers a diverse range of topics.

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