3 minTesla driver says he was asleep on FSD when he hit a CHP patrol car near Fairfield, two officers seriously hurt
A Tesla drove through a closed section of Interstate 80 in California and crashed into a parked Highway Patrol car. The driver told officers he had fallen asleep with Full Self-Driving engaged. CHP released dashcam video on Thursday.
Two California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers were seriously injured when a Tesla crashed into their parked patrol car on Interstate 80 in Fairfield, California. The driver told investigators he had been asleep while using Full Self-Driving (Supervised). CHP released dashcam video of the crash on Thursday, October 15.
What happened
The crash happened just before midnight on Tuesday, October 13, on eastbound I-80 near Air Base Parkway in Solano County, between San Francisco and Sacramento. CHP officers were already working a fatal crash there: about an hour earlier, a 19-year-old driver had lost control of his car and was killed. Several lanes were closed behind flares and cones.
According to CHP, the Tesla arrived at freeway speed, drove past the flares and cones into the closed lanes, and hit the back of a parked Dodge Charger patrol car with two officers inside. Two other officers standing behind the car jumped out of the way. Cameras on the patrol car and another vehicle at the scene recorded the impact.
Key facts
- Injuries: the two officers in the patrol car were seriously hurt. KQED reported that both spent the night in a Fairfield hospital and were released the next day.
- Driver: a 22-year-old man from Sacramento, who suffered minor injuries. Investigators said he was not intoxicated.
- His account: he told CHP at the scene that he was asleep with FSD engaged.
- Unconfirmed so far: CHP has not released the Tesla model or software version. For now, the driver's statement is the only evidence that FSD was on. CHP plans to download the car's data and camera footage.
What CHP and Tesla said
CHP spokesperson Sgt. Andrew Barclay called the incident "pretty alarming". In a social media post, the agency stressed that FSD is not fully autonomous and that it is a Level 2 driver assistance system that needs constant supervision. Technology, CHP said, does not relieve drivers of their responsibility.
CHP is holding the driver, not Tesla, responsible. Barclay said the agency is weighing legal options. There are clear vehicle code violations, he said, but no specific law covers sleeping while a car drives itself. CHP could also ask the DMV to take away the driver's license. Tesla did not respond to KQED's request for comment. Its website states that current features require active driver supervision and do not make the car autonomous.
Context: emergency scenes are a known weak spot
Crashes into stopped emergency vehicles have been a concern for years. In August 2021, NHTSA opened an investigation into Teslas on Autopilot hitting police cars and fire trucks at emergency scenes, many of them at night. That ended with a recall of more than 2 million cars in December 2023, fixed with a software update that added more driver attention alerts. In 2024, a Tesla on FSD hit a parked police car in Fullerton, California; that driver admitted to using his phone.
Tesla's cabin camera is meant to detect drivers who look away or fall asleep. Electrek notes that drivers have found ways to fool the system.
Why it matters
The crash comes at a sensitive time. Tesla is promoting unsupervised driving through its Robotaxi service and has said it wants to offer it to private owners too. A case in which a supervised system apparently kept driving with nobody paying attention puts the focus back on how well Tesla checks that drivers are awake and watching.
What to watch next
The key questions are what the car's data shows about FSD and the driver monitoring system in the minutes before the crash, whether CHP or prosecutors take legal action, and whether NHTSA asks Tesla for information about this case.
