Raffi Krikorian crashes Tesla in FSD, highlights supervision gaps
Raffi Krikorian, former head of Uber's autonomous driving programme, crashed his Tesla Model X while using FSD in a curve; the vehicle hit a wall and was destroyed, with both occupants suffering minor injuries. Krikorian reported that despite his expertise in autonomous driving, he could not regain control in time, attributing the risk to "vigilance decline" where drivers become over-reliant on systems that function correctly 99% of the time.
What happened
Raffi Krikorian, former head of Uber's autonomous driving programme, was driving his Tesla Model X with FSD activated when the vehicle's behaviour changed in a curve.
Although Krikorian attempted to regain manual control, he was unable to do so in time; the vehicle crashed into a wall and was completely destroyed. Both occupants suffered only minor injuries.
Reported impact
Krikorian reported that the incident revealed a significant risk: despite his expert knowledge of autonomous driving systems, he could not respond quickly enough when the system failed.
Krikorian attributed the problem to what he termed "vigilance decline", whereby drivers become passively supervised because the system operates correctly approximately 99% of the time, leaving them unprepared to take action during failures. A neurochirgeon had previously warned of a false sense of security that may dereresponsabilize drivers, even if autonomous systems could ultimately prevent many crashes.
Index analysis
The incident illustrates a documented human factors challenge: autonomous driving systems that perform reliably for extended periods can create over-confidence and inattention in human operators, degrading their ability to intervene when needed.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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