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Tesla owner & local media re-enact Thanksgiving Day accident with FSD Beta Tesla owner & local media re-enact Thanksgiving Day accident with FSD Beta

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Tesla’s alleged Thanksgiving FSD crash in SF is being recreated by media

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Tesla Owners Club of East Bay cofounder Wilmer Awayan teamed up with the local media to simulate an accident with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta engaged. The club shared behind-the-scenes videos and photos on Twitter.

On Thanksgiving Day, the owner of a 2021 Tesla Model S claimed that his vehicle was operating with Tesla’s FSD Beta engaged and that the technology malfunctioned, causing an eight-car pile-up on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge.

The club tweeted that it had the unique opportunity to host an FSD Beta ride along with Brooks Jarosz with KTVU to simulate and re-enact what could have occurred in the accident. At this time, KTVU hasn’t published its story yet, but San Francisco has been dealing with a rainstorm that’s been keeping the local news crews pretty busy.

Al Shen, president of the club, told Teslarati that this was a great opportunity to share a first-hand look at Tesla’s FSD Beta technology.

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In the video above, Shen shared footage of FSD Beta at the exact location of the accident, noting that the camera crew was along for the ride. Shen told Teslarati that he received an email from an investigative reporter from his local Fox News Station affiliate Channel 2.

“They were seeking a chance to re-enact and test out what FSD capability is and how it works on roads, particularly on the section of the SF Bay Bridge, one of the busiest bridges in America where that Tesla Driver caused that eight-car pile up on thanksgiving 2022,” he said.

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Shen chose to help his local news station because he felt it was a unique opportunity to share a first-hand look at Tesla’s technology.

“As educated owners and a Tesla Owners enthusiast group here to support the brand’s mission, we felt it was a unique opportunity to give a first-hand look at what Tesla’s emerging autonomy and driver’s assist features for Full Self Driving look like from inside a Tesla as opposed to only reading about it or third-hand knowledge,” he said.

“We utilized FSD beta to navigate us to our rendezvous location and proceeded on the simulated drive across the SF-Oakland Bay bridge, even with inclement rain weather, the system performed nominally under rainy conditions although slower than some traffic.”

“As the FSD Beta vehicle approached the infamous tunnel where the Thanksgiving crash occurred, we proceeded through and even simulated a lane change similar to the one seen in the now-released traffic footage. Again we noticed a slight deceleration but nothing as extreme as what occurred in the accident.”

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“FSD Beta offered some lane changes, which we declined to proceed with, the news team was impressed with the visualization and the car’s ability to visualize and process the world around it in real-time.”

“What we felt paramount to do, despite incurring a legitimate strike, was that our driver purposely disobeyed the software and did not confirm when warnings came to put our hands on the wheel and remain attentive at all times. The vehicle disengaged and began to slow down, however, given the open ‘testing’ environment we were in, we pressed the accelerator and resumed our drive at safer speeds and distances,” Shen added.

Update:

KTVU aired the video on this evening’s news.

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Disclosure: Johnna is a $TSLA shareholder and believes in Tesla’s mission.  

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Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.

Teslarati is now on TikTok. Follow us for interactive news & more. Teslarati is now on TikTok. Follow us for interactive news & more. You can also follow Teslarati on LinkedInTwitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

 

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Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge writer covering Tesla, Elon Musk, EVs, and clean energy & supports Tesla's mission. Johnna also interviewed Elon Musk and you can listen here

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Ford is charging for a basic EV feature on the Mustang Mach-E

When ordering a new Ford Mustang Mach-E, you’ll now be hit with an additional fee for one basic EV feature: the frunk.

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Credit: Ford Motor Company

Ford is charging an additional fee for a basic EV feature on its Mustang Mach-E, its most popular electric vehicle offering.

Ford has shuttered its initial Model e program, but is venturing into a more controlled and refined effort, and it is abandoning the F-150 Lightning in favor of a new pickup that is currently under design, but appears to have some favorable features.

However, ordering a new Mustang Mach-E now comes with an additional fee for one basic EV feature: the frunk.

The frunk is the front trunk, and due to the lack of a large engine in the front of an electric vehicle, OEMs are able to offer additional storage space under the hood. There’s one problem, though, and that is that companies appear to be recognizing that they can remove it for free while offering the function for a fee.

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Ford is charging $495 for the frunk.

Interestingly, the frunk size varies by vehicle, but the Mustang Mach-E features a 4.7 to 4.8 cubic-foot-sized frunk, which measures approximately 9 inches deep, 26 inches wide, and 14 inches high.

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When the vehicle was first released, Ford marketed the frunk as the ultimate tailgating feature, showing it off as a perfect place to store and serve cold shrimp cocktail.

Ford Mach-E frunk is perfect for chowders and chicken wings, and we’re not even joking

It appears the decision to charge for what is a simple advantage of an EV is not going over well, as even Ford loyal customers say the frunk is a “basic expectation” of an EV. Without it, it seems as if fans feel the company is nickel-and-diming its customers.

It will be pretty interesting to see the Mach-E without a frunk, and while it should not be enough to turn people away from potentially buying the vehicle, it seems the decision to add an additional charge to include one will definitely annoy some customers.

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Tesla to improve one of its best features, coding shows

According to the update, Tesla will work on improving the headlights when coming into contact with highly reflective objects, including road signs, traffic signs, and street lights. Additionally, pixel-level dimming will happen in two stages, whereas it currently performs with just one, meaning on or off.

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

Tesla is looking to upgrade its Matrix Headlights, a unique and high-tech feature that is available on several of its vehicles. The headlights aim to maximize visibility for Tesla drivers while being considerate of oncoming traffic.

The Matrix Headlights Tesla offers utilize dimming of individual light pixels to ensure that visibility stays high for those behind the wheel, while also being considerate of other cars by decreasing the brightness in areas where other cars are traveling.

Here’s what they look like in action:

As you can see, the Matrix headlight system intentionally dims the area where oncoming cars would be impacted by high beams. This keeps visibility at a maximum for everyone on the road, including those who could be hit with bright lights in their eyes.

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There are still a handful of complaints from owners, however, but Tesla appears to be looking to resolve these with the coming updates in a Software Version that is currently labeled 2026.2.xxx. The coding was spotted by X user BERKANT:

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According to the update, Tesla will work on improving the headlights when coming into contact with highly reflective objects, including road signs, traffic signs, and street lights. Additionally, pixel-level dimming will happen in two stages, whereas it currently performs with just one, meaning on or off.

Finally, the new system will prevent the high beams from glaring back at the driver. The system is made to dim when it recognizes oncoming cars, but not necessarily objects that could produce glaring issues back at the driver.

Tesla’s revolutionary Matrix headlights are coming to the U.S.

This upgrade is software-focused, so there will not need to be any physical changes or upgrades made to Tesla vehicles that utilize the Matrix headlights currently.

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Elon Musk

xAI’s Grok approved for Pentagon classified systems: report

Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations. 

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Credit: xAI

Elon Musk’s xAI has signed an agreement with the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to allow Grok to be used in classified military systems.

Previously, Anthropic’s Claude had been the only AI system approved for the most sensitive military work, but a dispute over usage safeguards has reportedly prompted the Pentagon to broaden its options, as noted in a report from Axios.

Under the agreement, Grok can be deployed in systems handling classified intelligence analysis, weapons development, and battlefield operations. 

The publication reported that xAI agreed to the Pentagon’s requirement that its technology be usable for “all lawful purposes,” a standard Anthropic has reportedly resisted due to alleged ethical restrictions tied to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons use.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to meet with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in what sources expect to be a tense meeting, with the publication hinting that the Pentagon could designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” if the company does not lift its safeguards. 

Axios stated that replacing Claude fully might be technically challenging even if xAI or other alternative AI systems take its place. That being said, other AI systems are already in use by the DoD. 

Grok already operates in the Pentagon’s unclassified systems alongside Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google is reportedly close to an agreement that will result in Gemini being used for classified use, while OpenAI’s progress toward classified deployment is described as slower but still feasible. 

The publication noted that the Pentagon continues talks with several AI companies as it prepares for potential changes in classified AI sourcing.

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