Another Telsa on Autopilot Stopped on Freeway, Driver Died: Report

For the second time in the last few weeks, electric vehicle publication Electrek is reporting that Tesla’s driver-assist system was engaged during a deadly accident involving a Tesla vehicle coming to a complete stop in the middle of traffic.

The first incident that the outlet covered took place in Florida on October 6, 2025. Per the report, a 43-year-old man died behind the wheel of his 2020 Tesla Model 3 after the vehicle came to a complete stop in a live lane of Interstate 4. The vehicle was rear-ended by a semi-truck, which clipped the back of the Tesla while trying to avoid it. The vehicle was pushed into a guardrail and overturned, and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

A similar situation apparently occurred on October 31, 2025, in Arizona. Once again, a 2020 Tesla Model 3 suddenly came to a stop in a live lane of traffic, this time on the Loop 202 freeway. The car was hit from behind by a Ford F-350 pickup truck.

In both cases, it appeared the initial reporting on the accidents made no mention of Tesla’s Autopilot, “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” or any driver-assist system. But Electrek was able to match the incident to filings Tesla made with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and find that Tesla’s self-driving systems were engaged in both accidents.

In the Florida case , the NHTSA report showed automation “Engagement Status” as “Verified Engaged.” Automakers are required to report if a Level 2 (or higher) driver-assist system is engaged within at least 30 seconds of impact, so this would suggest that self-driving was activated in some way prior to the crash. The same “Verified Engaged” status was present in the Arizona report, per Electrek .

There have been reports of phantom braking issues in Tesla’s autonomous driving systems for years now , with vehicles at times coming to a halt for no apparent reason. The issue is the subject of an ongoing class-action lawsuit against the company. Another case related to the issue is moving forward in Australia, where the judge in the case recently suggested appointing an independent auditor to review Tesla’s internal engineering platforms in response to the company dragging its feet during the discovery process.

The cases reported on by Electrek don’t necessarily highlight something new, though it certainly suggests a troubling pattern that the incidents happened in almost identical ways in such a short time period. What is particularly notable about them is the fact that Tesla somehow managed to avoid scrutiny, and that initial reports made no mention of the company’s self-driving systems being active during the crashes.

Gizmodo reached out to Tesla for comment regarding these reports but did not receive a response at the time of publication.