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The driver attempted to regain control once the car was on the grass, but there was no room to brake.

A new video has surfaced in which Tesla's controversial Autopilot software allegedly causes a crash. In the video, posted to Reddit by user gamercollectorJ and spotted on Twitter, a 2020 Model S supposedly operating on Autopilot swerves hard off the road, putting the car into the grass and on a collision course with a guard rail. The driver is unable to stop before hitting it.

Tesla operating in Full Self Driving Mode runs off road into guard rail for no reason (context below) pic.twitter.com/lHFwyOxaOd

The Reddit post claims the car was using the Full Self-Driving Beta. Users in the comments are quick to point out that highway autonomy is handled by a different subsystem, Enhanced Autopilot. Because enabling Full Self-Driving disables radar, it technically reduces redundancy and situational awareness, something that users note can lead to noticeable behavior change on the highway.

In this instance, it's unclear whether the car saw a truck changing lanes or some terrain feature that caused it to jerk hard to the left. Regardless, it departed the road in less than a second. The owner claims to have been paying attention, but by the time the car was in the grass there was little he could do. Jerking back onto the highway from a slick surface before the guard rail could have caused a much worse wreck, so he attempted to slow down to the left of the guard rail. What he didn't realize was that there was a second rail behind it that eventually connected, penning the car. There was no chance of stopping on the low-friction grass.

If this crash is verified as being caused by Autopilot, it will surely draw more negative attention to the system. Regulators are already looking into safety concerns—including the idea that the Full Self-Driving branding lulls drivers into a false sense of security—and Ralph Nader has called for a full recall. It's unclear whether any of that is likely to change Tesla's strategy, but this incident could be another case that puts pressure on the automaker to be more cautious in its deployment of beta features.