Does FSD stop for school buses and emergency vehicles?
Legally mandated behaviour with real consequences — and one of the clearest pass/fail tests in the archive.
Coverage by software era
How much footage exists for this scenario in each build. Eras with fewer than 3 matching videos are marked — they are anecdotes, not evidence of a trend.
| Version | Moments | Failures | Highlights | Videos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v8 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 / 12 | thin sample |
| v10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 / 55 | |
| v10.69 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 / 38 | |
| v11.3 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 / 15 | thin sample |
| v11.4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 / 35 | thin sample |
| v12 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 / 5 | thin sample |
| v12.4 | 2 | – | 2 | 2 / 7 | thin sample |
| v12.5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 / 24 | |
| v13.2 | 3 | – | 3 | 3 / 27 | |
| v14 | 2 | – | 2 | 2 / 5 | thin sample |
| v14.1 | 1 | 1 | – | 1 / 14 | thin sample |
| v14.2 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 / 13 | thin sample |
| v14.3 | 1 | 1 | – | 1 / 22 | thin sample |
Watch it happen
Worst first, newest builds first within each severity. Every card opens YouTube at the moment.
On Dec 7 2019 a Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot hit a stopped police car in a highway lane (then a disabled vehicle) after the driver looked back at his dog.
He disengages because FSD does not know how to yield to a police car flying by with sirens; re-engages after and calls it the one and only disengagement.
Sirens behind; FSD follows a human into a left-turn lane and does not yield, so the creator takes over and moves out of the way.
Driver disengages and pulls over for a fire truck with lights/siren, which FSD Beta cannot handle and does not show on the display.
Chris took over because a cop was behind and he would not let beta do weird things with police nearby.
Emergency vehicle stopped on the right; he moves over for legal move-over and counts it as a disengagement because the car only slows for emergency lights at night and will not change lanes away.
Ambulance oncoming; Chris manually pulled over because Beta cannot pull over for emergency vehicles and displayed it as a semi truck.
While parking, the car got extremely close to a cop car before continuing, with Chris reacting that it nearly hit it.
Extreme harsh braking in an intersection with a green light, possibly mistaking a Red Bull truck for an emergency vehicle; he hit the accelerator to prevent FSD from stopping mid-intersection.
Creator intervened with accelerator taps (and later a hold) because FSD would not accelerate into the new higher speed limit, including near a school zone outside active times.
Second school speed limit 25 not picked up; creator intervened again to set correct speed.
Blinking school speed limit 25 was not detected; creator manually reduced speed and called it the first intervention.
He hears a siren he cannot see, notes the car cannot respond to that yet (can slow for them on highway), and starts to pull over before aborting.
He changes lanes away from a school bus with blinking yellow lights and counts it as an intervention (stop sign not out).
FSD generally will not yield for emergency vehicles with sirens; the driver usually must take over, though occasional correct-looking interactions are reported.
FSD generally does not reduce speed for school zones unless dynamic signs change the posted limit.
For the most part FSD does not reliably stop for school-bus stop signs, including opposite-side buses with stop arm out.
Around sirens to the right, FSD again did not follow navigation; Chris said it would not hurt anything in that case.
In a school zone the car briefly showed the correct speed limit then changed back to the wrong higher limit while still in the zone.
FSD still does not handle school zones consistently, sometimes getting them right and sometimes wrong.
FSD did not obey a school speed limit that was inactive (no school that Monday); Chris noted this would have been an intervention on an actual school day.
FSD sits close and awkwardly behind/near a fire truck instead of efficiently going around, then takes the outside lane and merges back.
Near police, there is no police visualization or message yet (sirens noted as future); it does show nearby people.
After re-engaging, FSD positioned well, waited for a gap past an ambulance, then completed the tough left with solid but not aggressive acceleration.
At a multi-lane congested area with emergency vehicles present, FSD took an awkward path Chris would not choose but completed without needing help.
He nearly braked for a 25 mph school zone, then realized it was summer; car preemptively sped up toward the next limit sign ending the zone.
The car slows tremendously and carefully squeezes past parked fire trucks and cars, waits for a firefighter in the road to move, then proceeds without intervention.
With emergency vehicles and an ambulance nearby, FSD continues on the open part of the road with no special screen messages and handles it as it should.
FSD waits for a car nearly in the blind spot, then smoothly moves around a bus picking up or dropping off passengers.
Beautifully slowed for a police car then sped back up after realizing nobody was in it, which he jokingly called sentience.
Beta does not slow for flashing school-zone lights; he says it is not part of what beta does right now.
Busy stop sign with awkward braking, a brief phantom alert, slow progress, and confusion about a stopped bus; Chris says lots going on can trip the system up.
Encountered a school bus with kids boarding; no clear bus stop-sign behavior test, and chickens briefly appeared on the visualization.
Police car stops on the roadside; FSD signals, then unexpectedly moves over/dodges the vehicle coming up from behind.