Cybertruck Driver Shares Message for Musk After Crashing in Self-Driving Mode: 'Help Save Others From the Same Fate or Far Worse'

A man behind the wheel of a Cybertruck pickup went viral after sharing that his vehicle crashed while in self-driving mode in Reno, Nevada, earlier this week.

"Don't make the same mistake I did. Pay attention. It is easy to get complacent now - don't," Jonathan Challinger wrote in a now-deleted X post in which he tagged Tesla CEO Elon Musk. "Spread my message and help save others from the same fate or far worse."

Challinger was using the Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature, which still requires a human behind the wheel, when an unknown mechanical issue caused the vehicle to not merge out of an ending lane. Challinger then hit the curb before crashing into a pole, according to reporting by Reuters.

The crash comes just weeks after Musk attempted to quell bad press by releasing Version 13 of the FSD technology, which he claimed had "immense improvement." Tesla is also months away from launching self-driving rideshare services in Austin, Texas, in a state that has no regulatory requirements for autonomous vehicles, Reuters reported.

"The race is on a technology which is not ready for deployment," Saber Fallah, professor of Safe AI and Autonomy at the University of Surrey, told Reuters. "Lane endings, merges, and sudden road layout changes remain problematic for AI-driven systems, which lack the cognitive adaptability of human drivers."