Musk’s “Don’t Crash” Rule Applies Even if a UFO Lands on the Road

As completely autonomous vehicles begin to look more a reality with each day, Tesla Senior Vice President for Automotive Tom Zhu recently pointed to Elon Musk’s “prime directive” for the full self-driving (FSD) autopilot system, even if a UFO lands right in front of the car.

• Is it realistic to expect autonomous cars to react correctly to once-in-a-lifetime events?
• This philosophy might make AI safer, but could also set an impossible engineering standard.
• Is Tesla now the true leader in real-world safety stress-testing?

Teslas’ Senior VP reminded the world of Elon Musk’s core rule for Full Self-Driving: the system must avoid a crash no matter how bizarre the situation, even if a UFO suddenly lands on the road. Zhu resurfaced Musk’s 2021 statement in an X post on October 29, emphasizing Tesla’s uncompromising approach to safety.

Indeed, four years ago, Musk said that the prime directive and absolute priority for FSD was to avoid accidents and keep passengers safe under any condition and in virtually every scenario, even if the scenario looks like something taken from a sci-fi book or movie:

“For self-driving, even if the road is painted completely wrong and a UFO lands in the middle of the road, the car still cannot crash and still needs to do the right thing. The prime directive for the autopilot system is: Don’t crash. That really overrides everything. No matter what the lines say or how the road is done, the thing that needs to happen is minimizing the probability of impact while getting you to your destination conveniently and comfortably.”

Global FSD Rollout With One Primary Goal

Zhu repeated Musk’s words as he commented on the news that a Tesla Model Y was struck by what may have been a meteor as it was driving down the freeway in Australia. Despite the violent impact and a scorched windshield, the vehicle protected its occupants and continued driving safely.

The incident has proven that Zhu wasn’t simply parroting empty words of his boss and that the company aims to match the philosophy shared by the management.

Safety Tested in Extreme Real-World Scenarios

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system is being shaped around one core philosophy: it must be capable of making the safest possible decision even when reality doesn’t follow the rules. Elon Musk’s “prime directive” forces engineers to train FSD not just for common road conditions, but also for rare, chaotic, and unpredictable events that human drivers would struggle to react to.

This means the AI must recognize danger, ignore misleading cues, and prioritize collision avoidance over strict rule-following, a fundamentally different approach than traditional autonomous driving systems. While no system can prepare for every scenario, Tesla’s ongoing development shows a clear intention: FSD should not only handle typical road hazards but also react intelligently when the unexpected occurs.

Recent real-world incidents have already served as early stress tests for this philosophy. One example is the Tesla Model Y in Australia that was struck by what appeared to be a meteor, yet still managed to keep passengers safe and continue driving.

This focus on real-world resilience could ultimately set a new industry standard for autonomous vehicle safety.

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