Would FSD Save My CT From a Deer and the Deer itself :)

[cyberHoward]

I was driving a few days ago at around 8:30 a.m. in Northern Ohio when a deer darted from an open field just beyond a house and trees jumping a sizable ditch and crossing in front of me from the passenger side to the driver's side of the CT. I was a little slower than usual at that time of day I was not expecting a darting buck to cross my path and might have been daydreaming a little about FSD. I am always watching for deer, but probably more so at dawn and dusk. I slammed on the brakes and missed it on the driver's side as it crossed in front of me from the passenger side. I missed the deer by about 6 inches and I can tell you we both looked at each other in the eyes and said oh shit. I was lucky as I was not as quick to notice the deer as I usually am and in most cases, I stop with it 20 yards out in anticipation or at least slow to figure out its direction. My big question is if I had FSD on, would it have seen the deer from the side and reacted even faster than I did or would I have hit the deer because I was not ready to hit the brakes and it would not have identified or cared about the deer approaching from a field? Is it only programmed to react to humans, cars, or bikes? It would be great if it would acknowledge my dogs as well and stop if they get too close, but that actually might get annoying as my dogs like to hug the car but have stayed out of the way for years. Does anyone know how I would extract a video of the deer passing by the various cameras and probably my face as this incident happened?

Sponsored

 

[Outdoors]

Well the question should be would it have saved the deer? You're are still here and typing right?

 

[Cyber Man]

Well the question would be would it have saved the deer? You're are still here and typing right?

lol ? good one.

OP - FSD is not needed to save you from the deer. I saw another thread where someone hit a deer head on at full speed (I think 60 mph). There was just a minor dent on the front bumper. The real question is can FSD save the deer. AFAIK, FSD is tuned to protect the owner first, and it should detect any type of object that’s on the collision path (not just Deer), but Deer might not be saved if it jumps out of nowhere. Hard stop might risk a rear end collision. FSD might do its best to save everyone but you will be FSD’s top priority.

 

[L3it3R]

I've had a deer step out in front of my model 3 while using FSD and the car slowed down and avoided the animal. It was admittedly a simple maneuver and wasn't a 'sudden' appearance of the deer. It just walked out into the road, and the car slowed down and went around it. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened to me more than that one occurrence since I drive primarily on rural roads.

In town, I've had dogs run in front of my car while on FSD and it will do an emergency stop. Not sure how little an animal has to be before FSD says "oh well", though.

 

[Outdoors]

My 3 in fsd tagged a deer. Nothing it could have done jumped in front of another car and I hit the rear end of it. Deer are stupid. Fsd cannot rationalize stupidity yet. Well it can sometimes it can weed out the stupid drivers of Teslas.

 

[Pops]

There are a lot of videos of FSD hitting animals. To be fair there is only so much FSD can do within the limitations of physics and time. It does seem to apply gentle brakes, but not to lock. It doesn't steer away from the animal, and that is likely the safest method...for the driver.

 

[cyberHoward]

I guess I am disappointed that because I was able to lock up the brakes and slightly steer right to avoid the deer I was far better off driving myself. Kind of hoping it would have seen it out in the field moving and possibly slowed down much earlier than I did. I guess I might be driving on back roads for a while even when it comes out or be hyper aware with my hands on the wheel.

 

[Crissa]

I guess I am disappointed that because I was able to lock up the brakes and slightly steer right to avoid the deer I was far better off driving myself. Kind of hoping it would have seen it out in the field moving and possibly slowed down much earlier than I did. I guess I might be driving on back roads for a while even when it comes out or be hyper aware with my hands on the wheel.

FSD will not lock up the brakes or do a hard moose manuever. It will only try to lessen the impact.

At lower speeds, it will avoid animals by steering... but remember, it only has to be better than the average driver.

-Crissa

 

[Cyber Man]

OP - in addition to what Crissa said, FSD is only going to get better. You do have a good point on how the Car can see something that humans cannot. Some high end cars are now having advanced infrared tech to see animals. I’m not sure on Tesla FSD as I haven’t tried it yet. Probably FSD might be able to use sophisticated AI to see things that we cannot see using naked eyes, especially animals during low light conditions. Eventually the idea is to make FSD far better than the average driver. The improvements in AI is not linear but rather exponential. So, don’t be surprised if in few years FSD AI can detect animals from far away and slowdown to be ready or even do more aggressive maneuvers than humans if the environment is safe to do so. It’ll happen. It’s just a matter of time.

 

[GatorCyber]

I guess I am disappointed that because I was able to lock up the brakes and slightly steer right to avoid the deer I was far better off driving myself. Kind of hoping it would have seen it out in the field moving and possibly slowed down much earlier than I did. I guess I might be driving on back roads for a while even when it comes out or be hyper aware with my hands on the wheel.

you still need to pay attention on FSD. This would be an instance where you should just be ready to intervene and not find out what FSD would do.

 

[Jedi2155]

I was not successful this past weekend in avoiding a roadkill while in my Model Y on FSD 12.5.1.3. Funny enough FSD was driving at 55 MPH and soon as I raised it to 70 MPH this jack rabbit jumps out and went splat. I reduced my speed to 55 MPH after and was able to avoid 2 more possible roadkill incidents.

There would need to be many more near misses (or not near misses...) before FSD has enough data to recognize these types of events.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t91a...ey=d505qzci67atwagv3et11y69z&st=woao71sf&dl=0

 

[Outdoors]

It will work on a fox ? with a bushy tail. A wet fox?. Is too skinny. Not joking. No fox were harmed. That's the good thing. Need to save them for my boots.

 

[Boyne]

I've had a deer step out in front of my model 3 while using FSD and the car slowed down and avoided the animal. It was admittedly a simple maneuver and wasn't a 'sudden' appearance of the deer. It just walked out into the road, and the car slowed down and went around it. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened to me more than that one occurrence since I drive primarily on rural roads.

In town, I've had dogs run in front of my car while on FSD and it will do an emergency stop. Not sure how little an animal has to be before FSD says "oh well", though.

Based on my experience, FSD does very well for a wild Turkey in the road. Slows down and waits for flock to move on before proceeding.

Sponsored