Tesla cameras have a way of catching some pretty insane footage. In fact, there are whole Youtube channels dedicated just to video from Tesla cameras. A semi-truck hit a Tesla Model 3 and pushed it down the highway for half a mile before the truck’s driver even noticed. How does something like this happen? Perhaps the most important thing to note is that no one was hurt.

The Tesla Model 3 was on Autopilot when the incident occurred

According to Inside EVs, the Tesla Model Three driver was operating the Tesla on Autopilot as they drove down the highway. It seems that there were two lanes going each way, and the truck was in the left lane, while the Tesla Model 3 was in the right lane. The driver of the Tesla decided to pass the semi-truck, since it had been driving in that lane for awhile. He had just about made it when the truck decided to change lanes.

This was where things got bad for the Tesla. The truck didn’t notice the Tesla passing in the right lane, and he clipped the Tesla’s rear. When this happened, the Tesla spun in front of the truck and was then pushed down the highway for half a mile before the driver of the semi-truck noticed something was wrong, and pulled over.

The semi-truck didn’t even know he’d hit a car until he stopped

Although you might think that the driver of the semi-truck must have noticed that there was a car being pushed by his truck, he didn’t. In fact, the only reason that he eventually stopped was because he felt like something was off in the truck. According to Inside EVs, the driver felt some resistance in the truck, and he pulled over to check it out.

It was once he was stopped that he saw people getting out in front of him. It wasn’t until he actually got out of his truck that he finally saw the Tesla attached to his truck. Although it was probably terrifying for the people in the Tesla as well as the truck driver, once he realized what had happened, the fact that the two vehicles stayed attached may have helped keep the accident from being worse.

Why didn’t Tesla Autopilot prevent this accident?

If you’re familiar with Tesla Autopilot, you’re probably wondering why the Autopilot feature didn’t prevent this accident. According to the driver of the Tesla Model 3, it did try to alert him when the truck was about to hit him, but he didn’t have time to react. Additionally, he said that the Tesla Model 3 tried to move out of the way of the truck, but “the force of the truck moving at 70 mph was too much for the car to overcome.”

Inside EVs says that the truck driver was found at fault for the accident, though that probably wasn’t very comforting to the Tesla driver. The damage totaled $20,000, and it took two months for the Tesla to be fixed. In addition, the Tesla Model 3 was fairly new, and the driver hadn’t had it very long before the accident.

It’s incredible that nobody was hurt in this accident. Both the truck driver and occupants of the Tesla Model 3 are very fortunate. It’s always a good idea to double-check before changing lanes and be aware of the vehicles that you’re passing. Thankfully this story has a happy ending.