In October 2016, Elon Musk promised that a Tesla would complete a fully autonomous drive from Los Angeles to New York by the end of 2017. That never happened. Instead, nearly a decade later, Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) is still lurching through beta tests, and a much-hyped coast-to-coast attempt just ended in a wreck after a mere 58 miles.
The Test That Never Got Off the Ground
Tesla superfans “Bearded Tesla” and “Josh West” — grown men who’ve essentially made Elon Musk their last name — set out this month from San Diego, hoping to cross 2,362 miles to Jacksonville, Florida using Tesla’s FSD v13.2.9 without human intervention. Within the first hour, their big coast-to-coast stunt was over.
The car failed to recognize a large piece of debris — described as a “huge girder” — lying on the interstate. Despite being visible from over 700 feet away, Tesla’s visualization software never registered it. At 77 mph, the Model Y plowed straight into the object, launching the brand-new car into the air before slamming back down.
The driver only got a warning to “take over immediately” after the crash had already happened.
In October 2016, @ElonMusk claimed that Tesla would complete a fully autonomous drive from LA to NYC by the end of 2017. @BeardedTesla and @JoshWest247 set out on a journey from San Diego, CA to Jacksonville, FL to see whether it was possible for FSD v13.2.9 to drive 2,362… pic.twitter.com/7hJahaSLXn
— Dan O'Dowd (@RealDanODowd) September 20, 2025
Ten Years of Promises
This isn’t just one bad test. It’s the continuation of a decade-long pattern of false promises:
- 2016: Musk promised a coast-to-coast drive by 2017.
- 2016 onward: Tesla began marketing FSD as “10 times safer than a human driver.”
- Repeatedly: Musk has claimed FSD would be unsupervised “by the end of the year.”
- 2025: Tesla enthusiasts can’t even leave San Diego County before crashing.
Supporters often excuse these failures by saying autonomy is “just around the corner.” But “just around the corner” has lasted nearly ten years.
The Fraud of “10 Times Safer”
Fans like Lex Fridman — who built an entire brand around promoting Tesla and AI safety — have echoed Musk’s line that FSD is safer than human drivers. That claim collapses instantly when you look at the data.
Tesla drivers have some of the highest accident and fatality rates of any major car brand. The crash intervention times are poor, with the system often failing to alert until it’s already too late. The marketing spin doesn’t change the math: FSD isn’t safer. It’s reckless.
Why This Matters
This is not a harmless tech demo gone wrong. People have died in Teslas with Autopilot or FSD engaged. Cars have plowed into stationary objects, emergency vehicles, and pedestrians. Passengers have burned alive, trapped inside vehicles they couldn’t escape.
When people believe Tesla’s hype, they put their lives — and everyone else’s lives on the road — at risk.
The BeardedTesla crew didn’t just damage a car. They demonstrated, yet again, that Tesla’s software cannot safely handle the real world. And yet Musk still insists unsupervised FSD is coming by the end of this year.
The Bigger Picture
Tesla markets FSD as a vision of the future, but the reality is clear:
- The tech fails in obvious, life-threatening situations.
- The company has missed its own deadlines for nearly a decade.
- Fans and influencers act as unpaid hype men, excusing disaster after disaster.
- Regulators continue to lag behind, even as crashes pile up.
This isn’t innovation. It’s a rolling public beta test using paying customers as crash dummies.
Conclusion
The coast-to-coast FSD attempt should have been a chance for Tesla to prove its boldest claims. Instead, it proved the opposite. After nearly ten years of promises, Tesla still can’t make it 60 miles without putting lives in danger.
At what point do we stop calling this “progress” and start calling it what it is — fraud?
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