Tesla Driver Says He Was Asleep and Using FSD When He Crashed Into Parked Highway Patrol Vehicles
Video shows the Tesla passing flares, cones and emergency lights before hitting a parked CHP vehicle; two officers were seriously injured. The driver said he was asleep with FSD engaged, prompting CHP to stress that it is not fully autonomous.
A Tesla driver told authorities he was asleep and had Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode engaged when his vehicle crashed into parked California Highway Patrol vehicles in October 2026. The crash seriously injured two officers, who were taken to a hospital following the collision.
Video released by the CHP shows the Tesla speeding past flares, cones, and emergency lights at an active accident scene before striking the rear of a parked patrol vehicle. Officers had been on the scene of an earlier accident at the time of the crash.
In response, the CHP issued a warning to drivers: “Despite its name, full self-driving is not fully autonomous. Technology does not relieve drivers of their responsibility to safely operate their vehicles.”
The incident adds to a documented pattern of Tesla’s driver-assist systems being involved in collisions with parked emergency vehicles. Following numerous such crashes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot software in 2021. NHTSA’s subsequent report found that the driver-assist features did not do enough to keep drivers engaged, linking them to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths when both the system and the driver failed to respond.
Tesla released an Autopilot update in 2023 adding more controls and alerts intended to ensure drivers remain in full control when Autosteer is enabled. NHTSA then opened a follow-up investigation into whether those changes went far enough.
The latest crash may intensify scrutiny of how Tesla’s driver-assist technology is marketed and used, particularly given the driver’s claim that he was asleep at the wheel while the system was active.