News
Tesla dashcam causes SUV driver to possibly lose license over road rage incident
After being stuck at home for almost two weeks, Omaha-based Tesla Model 3 owner Ken Woodward was looking forward to getting back to work. But before he could go back to his workplace, he needed to get another Covid-19 test. He took his trusty Model 3 to head over to the testing site, and things were completely normal. Unfortunately for Woodward, he was about a mile away from home when things took a turn for the worse.
At around 12:30 p.m. local time, the 40-year-old Tesla owner was driving near 204 and Center Streets when he encountered fellow 40-year-old Brian Frey, who was behind the wheel of an SUV. Unfortunately for the Model 3 owner, Frey was seemingly at a state where he is willing to hurt a fellow driver when he’s upset.
Frey was several car lengths behind the Model 3, with both the all-electric sedan and the SUV going around the speed limit. Woodward then came upon a red car that was driving much slower. Since he wanted to pass the slower car, Woodward merged into the adjacent lane in a standard overtaking maneuver.
This triggered something in the SUV driver. Speaking with local media after the incident, Woodward noted that he saw Frey throwing up his hands in the air like he was frustrated with the electric car driver. But that was just the beginning, as things were about to take a turn for the worse. Frey promptly accelerated hard, hitting the Model 3’s bumper. He followed it up by attempting to run the all-electric sedan off the road.
For good measure, and as Woodward was trying to keep his vehicle under control, Frey aggressively overtook the Tesla and slammed on his brakes. This resulted in the Model 3 crashing straight into the back of the SUV, throwing the massive vehicle forward.
“He forcefully whipped up behind me. He accelerated at me into my bumper, so that was the first hit. Then he pulled up next to me and forced me off the road completely almost into the guardrail going over Center Street. I regained my position back on the road. He overtook me and that’s when you can see in the video that he swerved in front of me and slammed on the brakes as hard as he could,” Woodward noted.
When authorities arrived on the scene, police were faced with conflicting accounts of the incident. Frey argued that it was the Tesla owner who tried to force him off the road before ramming his SUV from behind. Unfortunately for Frey, every single second of his road rage episode was recorded by the Model 3’s built-in dashcam feature. And once the footage was reviewed by the police, the authorities knew exactly what to do.
Deputies promptly ticketed Frey for willful reckless driving. And thanks to his road rage incident, he now stands to lose his license from 30 days to one year.
Speaking to local KETV News about the incident, Capt. Wayne Hudson with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department highlighted that the Model 3’s dashcam feature proved to be the difference-maker in Woodward and Frey’s road rage case. “Having the video in the vehicle was beneficial to our investigation,” Hudson said.
Watch a news segment about the road rage incident in the video below.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
News
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla emerged as one of the most recognized automakers at MotorTrend’s 2026 Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Innovator Awards.
As could be seen in a press release from the publication, two key Tesla employees were honored for their work on AI, autonomy, and vehicle software. MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla leaders and engineers recognized
The fourth annual SDV Innovator Awards celebrate pioneers and experts who are pushing the automotive industry deeper into software-driven development. Among the most notable honorees for this year was Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, who received a Pioneer Award for his role in advancing artificial intelligence and autonomy across the company’s vehicle lineup.
Tesla also secured recognition in the Expert category, with Lawson Fulton, a staff Autopilot machine learning engineer, honored for his contributions to Tesla’s driver-assistance and autonomous systems.
Tesla’s software-first strategy
While automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Rivian also received recognition, Tesla’s multiple awards stood out given the company’s outsized role in popularizing software-defined vehicles over the past decade. From frequent OTA updates to its data-driven approach to autonomy, Tesla has consistently treated vehicles as evolving software platforms rather than static products.
This has made Tesla’s vehicles very unique in their respective sectors, as they are arguably the only cars that objectively get better over time. This is especially true for vehicles that are loaded with the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which are getting progressively more intelligent and autonomous over time. The majority of Tesla’s updates to its vehicles are free as well, which is very much appreciated by customers worldwide.
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
