A Tesla Cybertruck owner named Nicholas Brownell described a frightening experience with the vehicle's Full Self-Driving system during a whiteout blizzard. The system struggled with snow-covered cameras and chose unplowed back roads over cleared main routes, forcing multiple manual interventions. This incident highlights limitations of Tesla's vision-only autonomous technology in severe weather.
Nicholas Brownell, an enthusiast of the Tesla Cybertruck, shared his alarming encounter with the vehicle's Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature in a Facebook community for Cybertruck owners. The event occurred during a intense whiteout blizzard, where the $100,000 truck's AI began veering toward deep, unplowed snow drifts instead of sticking to cleared pavement. Brownell noted that while the all-wheel-drive (AWD) system performed adequately against sliding, the FSD failed to apply basic snow-driving principles.
In his own words, Brownell said: “This wasn’t an issue so much with my Tesla Cybertruck’s tires and sliding, although I did slide out on a bend. It was more than the vehicle wasn't using basic snow-driving tactics, like staying off the shoulder and driving where the road is clear. Snow was covering the camera, and I had to take control of the truck multiple times because it was taking back roads that weren’t plowed, rather than the main road that was. FSD didn’t know how to avoid the deep snow whenever possible. My Cybertruck has AWD for the record.”
Senior reporter Denis Flierl, with over 30 years of experience testing vehicles in the Colorado Rockies, analyzed the incident. He explained that Tesla's FSD relies on neural networks trained on video data but falters when cameras are occluded by snow, losing the ability to distinguish plowed from unplowed surfaces. Unlike human drivers who follow tire tracks, the system searches for nonexistent lane lines, leading it toward hazardous shoulders.
Flierl pointed out that the vision-only approach lacks sensor redundancy, such as LiDAR, making it vulnerable to environmental factors like heavy precipitation, as noted by experts at Futurism. Safety advocates and testers from EVhype emphasize that this compromises depth perception in complex scenarios.
Community feedback on Reddit echoes these concerns. One user stated: “FSD doesn’t understand traction in the snow... It has no concept of appropriate cornering in the snow and will get you in an accident easily.” Another added: “FSD is not programmed to handle bad weather conditions... I damn near went off the road because it couldn't see the lane marking.”
Flierl advises Cybertruck owners to treat FSD as a fair-weather tool, perform manual interventions when needed, and maintain cameras proactively, such as wiping snow and applying hydrophobic coatings. He stresses that until Tesla addresses camera occlusion and improves neural network training for winter conditions, human judgment remains essential for safety.
