A man says his Tesla saved his life by swerving in self-driving mode to avoid an oncoming car at 75mph.
Clifford Lee was driving down a freeway in New Mexico after Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas at around 6:30pm on November 9, 2025.
He was driving in full self-drive mode (FSD) from White Sands National Park, New Mexico, to Monument Valley, Arizona, and said it was “pitch black” and the driving conditions were “horrendous”.
Due to the poor visibility, Clifford had failed to see that a truck had gone onto his lane to overtake a lorry.
He realised too late the truck was not going to complete the manoeuvre in time and Clifford thought he was going to have a head-on collision at 75mph.
But his self-driving mode kicked in and swerved his car onto the shoulder.
His dashcam caught the moment and Clifford credits Tesla for saving his life – and said if the two cars had collided head-on, it could have been fatal.
He believes he wouldn’t have been able to react in time if he had been driving without the use of Tesla’s self driving mode.
Clifford, a Tesla shareholder from Olympia, Washington State, said: “In this case, the driver came out of nowhere.
“I realized that the driver coming towards me was not going to make it.
“When I realized that is when the FSD kicked in and moved me onto the shoulder.
“FSD saved me; it is beyond anyone’s skill.
“I didn’t even realize how bad it was until I watched the video.
“I then realized how bad it could have been – it could have been fatal.”
