A Tesla using Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology with HW3 hardware avoided a crash when a box truck swerved into its lane at 45 mph. The car detected a threat, checked its blind spot, and moved safely without braking hard.
The owner of the car said, “Most humans would have slammed the brakes because they can’t check the blind spot fast enough, potentially causing a rear-end crash. Not this car. It’s always alert and watching., I should also point out that my car is HW3.” This event makes it clear that Tesla’s tech can react in ways that cut down on common crashes.
Footage of the incident:
Tesla watches from all angles
FSD uses eight cameras and sensors. The car watches nearby traffic and objects, not just the road ahead. It doesn’t take breaks or get tired. The cameras help spot vehicles, bikes, and people in other lanes. Because it sees everything, it can notice threats before most drivers do. When the truck cut in, Tesla moved instead of braking, so rear traffic kept flowing.
HW3 still works for FSD
The car in this case uses HW3, not newer HW4 or HW5. HW3 isn’t as fast or advanced as Tesla’s latest chips, but it still runs most FSD features with its eight cameras.
Tesla’s CEO has said cars with HW3 may need a new chip later if they want full “unsupervised” driving. For now, Tesla keeps updating HW3 cars so they stay nearly as sharp as HW4 in real-world driving.
FSD teams up with other safety tech like automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, and lane safety. These tools can hit the brakes or steer away on their own. Updates have helped FSD react better to pop-up cut-ins from trucks or cars. The system weighs speed, space, and escape paths in a split second. It picks a move based on what’s safest.
Safety data boosts confidence
Tesla’s safety stats show cars with Autopilot or FSD get in fewer accidents per mile than the national average. In Q2 2025, Teslas using Autopilot had one crash for every 6.69 million miles. That number drops without Autopilot, and even lower for regular drivers. With new FSD software, several hundred to over a thousand miles go by between serious cases needing human help.
Sudden moves from large trucks or wild drivers can be hard for any system. Tesla’s network learns from events like these, so next updates get better. Each new version tries to handle difficult merging, rude drivers, or people stopped ahead.
Hardware and updates
Tesla’s newest hardware (HW4) has sharper cameras and processes information faster. Soon it will run features that HW3 can’t. Right now, HW3 owners still get updates so their cars don’t fall behind. Tesla also said they will offer “FSD v14 Lite” update for HW3 owners by Mid-2026.
Safety officials are watching FSD closely, especially after incidents tied to self-driving tech. Tesla’s engineers are working to fix problems and explain how things work.
Tesla uses feedback and data from millions of cars and incidents like the box-truck case. The goal is for every car to spot and avoid crashes better than most people, even if that means giving up a little comfort for safety.
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