This YouTuber's Cross-Country 'Self Driving' Road Trip Shows What You Shouldn't Do With A Tesla

YouTuber Justin Demaree, known as the Bearded Tesla Guy, decided to test his Tesla Model Y's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system on a cross-country road trip — and it didn't take long for the trip to become rocky. Demaree and a friend planned to drive — or let the car drive — from Orlando to San Diego, but chaos ensued just 60 miles into the challenge. Right at the start of the video, the Tesla Model Y can be seen flying at 70 miles per hour over a massive piece of metal in the road, which resulted in some concerning damage. 

After hitting the object on the highway, the Model Y lost a sway bar bracket, and some plastic on the bumper was damaged. Demaree says that he later learned that the battery had a cell imbalance that left the duo heading to a service center in Arizona — the report concluded that the battery was having issues before the highway incident, but did FSD's inability to slow down ahead of hitting the large object make it worse? 

Demaree's cross-country journey at the hands of Tesla's FSD mode has raised some interesting questions. A lot of the comments on the previous video revolved around his run-in with the police — many wanted to know why Demaree didn't admit to the police that he hit the large piece of metal because he was letting FSD take over. Why was that? 

As more self-driving cars hit the streets, states are scrambling to create new legislation. This includes regulations on the vehicles themselves and penalties for drivers who use FSD recklessly (even completely driverless cars won't be safe from tickets and penalties as states update their laws). If a self-driving car gets into an accident, the driver can be held legally responsible along with their car, as was the case with the death of Elaine Herzberg, the first woman to be killed by a self-driving vehicle. 

Studies surrounding the issue state that humans may be putting too much trust into their self-driving cars. Or in Demaree's case, purposefully ignoring potential dangers. Even Tesla itself warns that it's the driver's responsibility to stay alert and drive safely while operating an FSD car.

Its Model 3 manual states: "Traffic-Aware Cruise Control may not detect all objects and, especially when cruising over 50 mph, may not brake/decelerate when a vehicle or object is only partially in the driving lane or when a vehicle you are following moves out of your driving path and a stationary or slow-moving vehicle or object is in front of you." 

In addition to facing possible legal issues, it appears that Demaree would have needed to cover any damage caused while using the FSD mode. The damage caused by the highway incident racked up $22,000 at the service station, including $17,000 for a new battery — a visit that Demaree didn't record for us to see. The YouTuber had taken a detour to the nearest Tesla dealership when his battery kept showing concerning errors — it was believed that running over the large piece of metal exacerbated existing issues with the faulty battery. 

Demaree got lucky in that the battery may have had a pre-existing cell imbalance, and was still under Tesla's mileage warranty. If that hadn't been the case, Tesla would likely not have covered any issues caused by using Full Self-Driving mode. While Tesla may cover damage caused by autopilot failure, it won't cover damage caused while not following Tesla's guidelines. 

Tesla emphasizes that drivers must be "fully alert" while using FSD, allowing them to take over right away if road conditions require intervening. It would probably be a very difficult task to get Tesla to cover any damage caused by purposefully running into a giant metal object at full speed as you test FSD's capabilities. 

Tesla's FSD is still a work in progress, and has suffered many setbacks, resulting in the company's self-driving taxi falling way behind the competition. FSD isn't perfect, and has caused everything from minor traffic concerns to passenger deaths, but Tesla plows on regardless. You may want to try it out in a more reliable Tesla model, however.