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Tesla Model 3’s emergency braking system saves driver from icy collision
A Tesla Model 3 owner is thanking his electric car’s emergency braking system after a recent close call on a dangerous, icy highway. A video of the nail-biting incident showed the electric sedan seemingly detecting and anticipating a road hazard well ahead of time, allowing its driver to successfully perform a “threading the needle” maneuver, avoiding a potentially deadly crash in the process.
The short dashcam video showed the Tesla Model 3 navigating an icy highway smoothly, before it braked and moved to the right just as a stopped hatchback came into view. The Model 3 did not lose any traction when it performed the maneuver, unlike a white sedan that almost spun out when it evaded the vehicle.
In a post on the r/TeslaModel3 subreddit, Long Range Model 3 AWD owner u/thenext44 noted that he felt his electric sedan start braking even before he saw the stopped car on the road. Sharing his insights further, the Tesla enthusiast noted that when he swerved to the right to avoid the other vehicle, he could feel the Model 3 keeping itself in a straight line. This allowed the electric car to avoid losing traction, similar to what happened to the white sedan in front, which almost spun out when it tried to evade the stopped car.
Due to the circumstances of the incident, the Model 3 owner admitted that he was not really sure if Autopilot was engaged when his car’s emergency braking system kicked into gear. Explaining further, the Tesla enthusiast explained that the trip had been a six-hour drive, and that there have been times when Autopilot disengaged due to the weather. That said, the Tesla community member lightly stated that after he successfully threaded the needle, he immediately felt relief.
Tesla’s vehicles are among the safest cars on the road today, and this has been evident in the accolades the Model 3 has received since its release. Last year alone, the Model 3 received a “superior” front crash avoidance rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a nonprofit organization funded by auto insurers dedicated to reducing the number of accidents and injuries on the road. During the IIHS’ evaluation, the Model 3 showed impeccable automatic braking capabilities, reducing its speed by more than 10 mph during the organization’s 12 mph test, and exhibiting a speed reduction of over 22 mph in the 25 mph test.
Just like its two larger siblings, the Model 3 boasts an incredibly high safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Last August, the safety organization gave the electric sedan a perfect 5-Star safety rating in all categories and subcategories. In its frontal crash, side crash, and rollover tests, the Model 3 performed superbly, displaying a level of industry-leading driver and passenger safety. Analyzing the Model 3’s NHTSA results, Tesla has noted that the electric sedan is the vehicle with the lowest probability of injury among all cars that the agency has tested so far.
Watch the Tesla Model 3’s automatic braking system in action in the video below.
Threading the needle. Model 3 auto braked and kept from sliding out, avoiding a crash while driving too fast for conditions.
byu/thenext44 inTeslaModel3
In Pennsylvania, we got between 10 and 12 inches of snow over the weekend as a nasty Winter storm ripped through a large portion of the country, bringing snow to some areas and nasty ice storms to others.
I have had a Model Y Performance for the week courtesy of Tesla, which got the car to me last Monday. Today was my last full day with it before I take it back to my local showroom, and with all the accumulation on it, I decided to run a cool little experiment: How long would it take for Tesla’s Defrost feature to melt 8 inches of snow?
Tesla’s Defrost feature is one of the best and most underrated that the car has in its arsenal. While every car out there has a defrost setting, Tesla’s can be activated through the Smartphone App and is one of the better-performing systems in my opinion.
It has come in handy a lot through the Fall and Winter, helping clear up my windshield more efficiently while also clearing up more of the front glass than other cars I’ve owned.
The test was simple: don’t touch any of the ice or snow with my ice scraper, and let the car do all the work, no matter how long it took. Of course, it would be quicker to just clear the ice off manually, but I really wanted to see how long it would take.
Tesla Model Y heat pump takes on Model S resistive heating in defrosting showdown
Observations
I started this test at around 10:30 a.m. It was still pretty cloudy and cold out, and I knew the latter portion of the test would get some help from the Sun as it was expected to come out around noon, maybe a little bit after.
I cranked it up and set my iPhone up on a tripod, and activated the Time Lapse feature in the Camera settings.
The rest of the test was sitting and waiting.
It didn’t take long to see some difference. In fact, by the 20-minute mark, there was some notable melting of snow and ice along the sides of the windshield near the A Pillar.
However, this test was not one that was “efficient” in any manner; it took about three hours and 40 minutes to get the snow to a point where I would feel comfortable driving out in public. In no way would I do this normally; I simply wanted to see how it would do with a massive accumulation of snow.
It did well, but in the future, I’ll stick to clearing it off manually and using the Defrost setting for clearing up some ice before the gym in the morning.
Check out the video of the test below:
❄️ How long will it take for the Tesla Model Y Performance to defrost and melt ONE FOOT of snow after a blizzard?
Let’s find out: pic.twitter.com/Zmfeveap1x
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 26, 2026
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Tesla winter weather test: How long does it take to melt 8 inches of snow?
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
