Tesla influencers tried coast-to-coast self-driving, hit debris before 60 miles

Crash Incident & Human-in-the-Loop Problem

• Video shows FSD driving straight into a large metal ramp on a clear, empty highway; occupants see and discuss it 6–8 seconds before impact.
• Many comments stress this illustrates the core flaw of Level 2: humans are bad at passive monitoring and reacting only in rare emergencies.
• Analogies are drawn to aviation: overreliance on automation, “mode confusion,” and the time needed for humans to regain situational awareness when suddenly handed control.

FSD vs Human Drivers: What’s the Bar?

• One camp argues “many humans would have hit that,” citing inattentive or fatigued drivers and the rarity of such debris.
• Others strongly disagree: with that much time, an attentive driver would almost always slow or change lanes; the cop in the video asks why they didn’t.
• Several note that both occupants clearly noticed the object; they only failed to act because they were “testing FSD.”
• Broader point: autonomous systems should be better than average humans, not roughly comparable to bad ones.

Sensors, AI, and the Debris Miss

• The debris was road-colored and stationary, which some say is a worst case for camera-only systems and a strong case for lidar/radar and sensor fusion.
• Others counter that the fundamental bottleneck is AI/decision-making, not sensors; in many crashes, sensors already saw enough but the system misclassified or did nothing.
• Several compare to lidar-based services (e.g. Waymo), asserting such systems would almost certainly detect a tall protrusion from the ground plane under these conditions.

Level 2 Labeling, Responsibility & Testing on Public Roads

• Officially, Tesla calls FSD a Level 2, “hands-on, supervised” driver-assistance system; critics say marketing and influencers treat it as much closer to self-driving.
• Some view the stunt as reckless: intentionally letting the car hit debris on a public road endangers others, not just the testers.
• The episode reinforces concerns that semi-automation (good enough most of the time, but not reliable) can be more dangerous than no automation.

Comparisons, Hype, and Musk’s Role

• Multiple comments contrast Tesla’s vision-only, go-anywhere strategy with lidar-heavy, geofenced approaches that appear safer but less scalable.
• There is extensive skepticism about Tesla’s long-running “two more years” autonomy promises and about tying the company’s valuation to FSD/robotaxi narratives.
• Discussion broadens into Musk’s habit of overpromising without clear accountability, and a culture that rewards never admitting error.

Road Debris & Infrastructure Context

• Several European posters remark on how common large debris and shredded truck tires are on US highways; US posters describe cleanup practices, underfunded maintenance, and heavy truck traffic as contributing factors.