A self-driving Tesla took a man suffering from hyperglycemia and heart attack to the hospital

A self-driving Tesla saved a man’s life in North Carolina, taking him to the emergency room for emergency medical care. But let’s go back, because Elon Musk – who was always surprising and extreme in his promises – has avoided the passion for autonomous driving of his Teslas. He has been talking about it since 2016 and his goal was to make the Full Self-Driving (FSD) system fully functional and 2019 where he 2020. Something that never happened and which also caused problems for Tesla, as with the recent agreement of the death of an Apple engineer driving a Tesla with an FSD installed. The story of Max Paul Franklina television producer from North Carolina, however marks a victory for Musk and seems to show the very high potential of the latest update of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) system in its V12 version.

Last April 1, Tesla removed the word “beta” from its Self-Driving (FSD) system for all its cars in the United States, even allowing a one-month trial period. A few hours later, on the night between April 1 and 2, Franklin found himself faced with an emergency that put the advanced features of his Model Y to the test, reaching a value of 670 due to a malfunction of the insulin pump. In the grip of these serious problems, and also suffering from a minor heart attack, Franklin decided to rely entirely on his Tesla. He got on board, started the autonomous operation of the FSD V12, reset (the system is a paid evolution of Autopilot, which comes standard on all Tesla cars). The car traveled about 20 km independently to the emergency room door of Charles George Medical Center in Asheville, a medical center for military veterans, in North Carolina, without requiring any intervention from the owner.

The Franklin Story

“Without any hassle from me, the car expertly negotiated the 20-mile drive from my home to the emergency room of the veterans hospital, offering free parking once we arrived so I could get emergency help,” Franklin says in a post X (old Twitter) , complete with photos, which Elon Musk then shared, giving him a big impression.
Once at their destination, Model Y actually suggested finding a parking space on their own, while Franklin was greeted by doctors. Thanks to the care of the hospital staff, the man quickly recovered from his glycemic crisis and heart attack.

On X and other social networks, many users have commented that, in emergency situations like this, it’s always a good idea to call for help. But others say that the average time for an ambulance in the United States is 8 minutes, and that for rural areas like Franklin lives, this time can increase to 20-25 minutes and therefore an autonomous vehicle can save. precious minutes. However, it is also important to remember that – even if Tesla keeps talking about “self-driving” (FSD) – The rules require that the human behind the wheel is always ready to intervene and regain control, which is impossible with a continuous heart attack.

Over the past two weeks, those who have had access to the latest FSD update have described what Tesla engineers have accomplished. A big step forward with this technology. In addition to many testers who reported that they no longer had to intervene during a difficult journey in the city, other indications of the possibility of turning are. email sent by Elon Musk to North American employees, where he asks that the full FSD presentation be an integral part of the delivery of the car, and above all the announcement of the delivery of the Robotaxi, scheduled for next August 8 (which inspires the enthusiasm that Musk shared at the end of Franklin’s happy story) . Max Paul Franklin himself, whose enthusiasm is understandable, compares the leap forward made by Tesla in autonomous driving with the advent of smartphones compared to previous mobile phones.

“Independent” but managed

When Tesla opened access to the latest version of autonomous driving to all American owners, the V12 Full Self-Driving (FSD) system lost its “beta” label, becoming “It is managed” or “supervised”. The driver must always be able to regain control of the vehicle, even if the vehicle is autonomous in acceleration, braking and steering. The version description explains that – under human supervision – the FSD can drive anywhere, but that this does not make the car completely free. Several industry organizations and experts have criticized Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” title, calling it misleading and irresponsible. In some cases, as already mentioned, the company has even been sued for this. It is possible that the name change is aimed at the global launch of the feature. Tesla has also enabled a subscription option ($99 per month) to enable FSD software features.