Former Uber Autonomy Head in Tesla FSD Crash: System Suddenly Failed, Causing Wall Collision with Child in Back Seat

Raffi Krikorian, former head of Uber's self-driving division and current Chief Technology Officer at Mozilla, recently revealed that he was involved in a serious accident while driving his Tesla Model X with Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability engaged. The incident occurred in a residential area of the San Francisco Bay Area when, on a curve, the FSD system suddenly failed—the steering wheel violently shook before the vehicle crashed into a concrete wall. Krikorian suffered a concussion and neck injuries, though his son in the back seat was unharmed. Despite keeping his hands on the wheel and remaining alert throughout the drive, Krikorian admitted that the system’s consistently “near-perfect” daily performance had created a sense of trust inertia, making it difficult for him to take immediate control when the failure occurred. He emphasized that Tesla classifies FSD as a Level 2 driver-assistance system, placing full responsibility for accidents on the driver. Moreover, Tesla frequently uses in-vehicle data to shift blame away from itself. Krikorian criticized the system’s fundamental design flaw: its prolonged reliability leads to “vigilance decrement,” causing drivers to lower their guard over time. He also contrasted Tesla’s approach with BYD’s recent commitment to assume liability for accidents involving its automated parking feature, questioning why Tesla continues to evade responsibility.