Drivers and experts flag failures at rail crossings as regulators probe safety.
Multiple Tesla owners report Full Self-Driving (FSD) failing to reliably handle railroad crossings—forcing manual braking and near-misses—just as U.S. regulators intensify scrutiny of the technology.
Reports and Videos of Missed Stops
In North Texas, Italo Frigoli twice demonstrated FSD failing to stop for an active crossing, with gate arms descending and lights flashing. NBC News-reviewed footage aligns with his account, and online posts since June 2023 show similar mishaps. Six FSD users interviewed reported rail-crossing problems; four provided videos.
Near-Misses—and a Collision
Drivers describe cars not recognizing flashing lights or lowering arms, creeping forward after stopping, or even turning onto tracks. In June, a Tesla operating in FSD mode in eastern Pennsylvania drove onto tracks and was sideswiped minutes later by a Norfolk Southern freight train; occupants had exited beforehand, averting injuries, according to local authorities.
Regulators and Risk Warnings
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has raised the issue with Tesla and continues to analyze complaints for defect trends. Safety experts, including Carnegie Mellon’s Phil Koopman, warn that unreliable rail-crossing behavior is “an accident waiting to happen,” given the catastrophic stakes of a single error.
Inside the Black Box
Owners say behavior varies by scenario and software build. Frigoli’s 2025 Model Y ran FSD 13.2.9 on Tesla’s HW4 hardware in clear conditions. Experts note FSD is an end-to-end neural network—opaque even to its creators—making errors hard to explain and likely tied to insufficient training examples for diverse crossing layouts.
What Tesla Says—and Sells
Tesla brands FSD as advanced driver assistance requiring “active supervision.” It’s sold at $99/month or $8,000 upfront and is classified by Tesla as SAE Level 2—far from fully autonomous. Despite this, Elon Musk has asserted vehicles “can drive themselves,” and has floated an unsupervised version in “certain geographies,” alongside expanding robotaxi pilots.
Stakes at the Tracks
U.S. rail groups have long highlighted the complexity of crossings: differing signage, inconsistent markings, malfunctioning arms, and varied audio/visual cues. The Federal Railroad Administration recorded 267 fatalities at crossings last year, underscoring why automated systems must reliably detect trains, gates, and signals.
Comparisons and Alternatives
Waymo says its stack considers rail crossings in routing and uses audio receivers to detect trains; customers haven’t widely reported gate-or-signal violations. By contrast, Tesla’s approach is less transparent publicly, and it’s unclear whether it leverages audio for trains, though it has explored audio inputs for emergency vehicles.
Outlook: Software Updates vs. Transparency
Musk has teased a major FSD update as soon as late September. Yet without clear safety metrics, standardized test cases for crossings, or external validation, experts say it’s impossible to confirm systematic improvement. For now, Tesla advises constant driver supervision—especially near tracks.
Rail-crossing lapses spotlight a core challenge for vision-driven autonomy: mastering rare but high-risk edge cases. Until Tesla demonstrates transparent, measurable gains, the safest path remains vigilant human oversight. The outcome matters beyond Tesla’s customer base—shaping public trust in autonomous mobility and safety expectations across the U.S. and globally.
Sources: NBC News (2025) , NBC4 Los Angeles (2025)
Keywords: Tesla FSD, Railroad Crossing Failures, Autonomous Driving Safety, NHTSA Probe, Robotaxi Austin, Phil Koopman
