Tesla’s Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) has been the subject of public and regulatory debate over the past few years, though the automaker has recently highlighted an instance in which the software seems to have prevented a serious accident for one family.
On Sunday, X user Manoranjan Haobam shared video footage from their trip in a Tesla in Calgary, Canada, during which the driver did not see a deer approaching while driving 110 km/hr (~68 mph). Fortunately, Tesla’s FSD braked at the last second, seemingly preventing the car from colliding with the animal, and potentially saving the family’s lives.
Haobam details the near-miss below:
“Tesla FSD just saved our family, a deer, and the car! Driving at 110 km/h when a deer suddenly crossed our path—Tesla’s Full Self-Driving instantly detected it, smoothly braked, and prevented what could have been a major accident. Grateful for this life-saving tech!”
Tesla FSD just saved our family, a deer, and the car! Driving at 110 km/h when a deer suddenly crossed our path—Tesla’s Full Self-Driving instantly detected it, smoothly braked, and prevented what could have been a major accident. Grateful for this life-saving tech! #TeslaFSD… pic.twitter.com/tag55nNKsx
— Manoranjan Haobam (@HaobamMano) November 10, 2024
Tesla also reposted the video, highlighting that the software avoided the wildlife collision.
Tesla’s Supervised Full Self-Driving, Regulator Scrutiny, Cybercab
The company has regularly stated that it aims to make FSD Supervised safer than a human driver, and it constantly improves the system with software updates, not unlike what it does with its cars overall. The FSD Supervised system is also trained by real-time video footage from those who have it engaged while driving, and it’s this trained AI “neural network” and the vehicle’s suite of cameras that inform the system’s decision-making.
Still, the company provides several warnings to drivers in its cars and manual that they should be prepared to re-gain control of the vehicle. Tesla notes that driver intervention may be required in certain scenarios, especially with regards to narrow roads with oncoming cars, construction zones, or any time drivers are going through more complex intersections.
In its owners manuals, Tesla also warns that FSD Supervised is a “hands-on feature that requires you to pay attention to the road at all times,” adding the following warning for drivers:
Keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times, be mindful of road conditions and surrounding traffic, pay attention to pedestrians and cyclists, and always be prepared to take immediate action (especially around blind corners, crossing intersections, and in narrow driving situations). Failure to follow these instructions could cause damage, serious injury or death. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the limitations of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and the situations in which it may not work as expected.
Tesla has also been the subject of significant public and regulator scrutiny over the past few years, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) this week opening a preliminary investigation into the company’s social media portrayals of FSD Supervised. The agency has requested more information from the company on certain low-visibility conditions, as well as claiming that the company’s advertisements condone “disengaged driving behavior.”
Tesla releases a quarterly safety report for its Autopilot and FSD Supervised systems, comparing the number of incidents with the systems engaged to the NHTSA average in the U.S. In Q3, Tesla’s vehicles using Autopilot averaged one crash for every 7.08 million miles driven, compared to one crash per every 670,000 recorded in the latest NHTSA data.
The instance also comes exactly a month after Tesla unveiled its Cybercab two-seater robotaxi at an event in Southern California, set to be sold without a steering wheel or pedals. Teslarati was among the first to take a ride in the self-driving taxi, and you can see our full experience in the Cybercab below.
?: Our FULL first ride in the @Tesla Cybercab pic.twitter.com/6gR7OgKRCz
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 11, 2024
Tesla FSD update makes speed profiles available on more roads
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI Director Ashok Elluswamy celebrated Christmas Eve by sharing personal experiences with Robotaxi vehicles that had no safety monitor or occupant in the driver’s seat. Musk described the system’s “perfect driving” around Austin, while Elluswamy posted video from the back seat, calling it “an amazing experience.”
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Elon and Ashok’s firsthand Robotaxi insights
Prior to Musk and the Tesla AI Director’s posts, sightings of unmanned Teslas navigating public roads were widely shared on social media. One such vehicle was spotted in Austin, Texas, which Elon Musk acknowleged by stating that “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.”
Based on his Christmas Eve post, Musk seemed to have tested an unmanned Tesla himself. “A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving,” Musk wrote in his post.
Elluswamy responded with a 2-minute video showing himself in the rear of an unmanned Tesla. The video featured the vehicle’s empty front seats, as well as its smooth handling through real-world traffic. He captioned his video with the words, “It’s an amazing experience!”
Towards Unsupervised operations
During an xAI Hackathon earlier this month, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla owed be removing Safety Monitors from its Robotaxis in Austin in just three weeks. “Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. So there will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them. Not even anyone in the passenger seat in about three weeks,” he said. Musk echoed similar estimates at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting and the Q3 2025 earnings call.
Considering the insights that were posted Musk and Elluswamy, it does appear that Tesla is working hard towards operating its Robotaxis with no safety monitors. This is quite impressive considering that the service was launched just earlier this year.
Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
News
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
