By DANIEL MATTHEWS, US SENIOR SPORTS WRITER and ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 23:42 BST, 8 August 2026 | Updated: 23:43 BST, 8 August 2026
Kyle Shanahan has revealed that his horror offseason car crash occurred while his Tesla was in autopilot mode, with the San Francisco 49ers coach still unsure exactly what went wrong.
The July 14 incident has been shrouded in mystery, after the police refused to release an accident report or bodycam footage from the scene and officers initially blamed the other driver, only for Shanahan to take responsibility.
He collided with a car driven by a 21-year-old woman in Palo Alto last month, saying it happened when he reached for his phone.
The incident left Shanahan with a concussion, broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken hand and more than 40 stitches to close a cut over his eye. A few symptoms from the concussion remain.
On Saturday, in his first news conference of training camp, the 46-year-old confirmed he will be on the sideline for Thursday's preseason opener against the Tennessee Titans at Levi’s Stadium.
He also explained that he was driving at around 20mph with his Tesla in autopilot mode when the crash happened. In autopilot mode, Tesla 'matches the speed of your vehicle to that of the surrounding traffic' and 'assists in steering within a clearly marked lane, and uses traffic-aware cruise control.'
Kyle Shanahan said his horror car crash occurred while his Tesla was in autopilot mode
The incident left Shanahan with a concussion, broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken hand and more than 40 stitches to close a cut over his eye
But Shanahan insisted he still should not have taken his eyes off the road when he reached behind his seat for his phone.
'I've had autopilot for nine years, so I'm pretty comfortable with it,' he said. 'Who knows what happened when I turned around, whether it malfunctioned or whether I knocked it off. That´s something that I don't know yet.
'But regardless, that is always your fault, whether you're in autopilot or not. You can't take your eyes off the road. It's a partnership driving.
'You don't just turn it over to a computer. It's a good lesson, no matter how comfortable I am with that, that I believe someday could save my life or someone else's.'
Shanahan was the only person who needed to be hospitalized and police didn't issue him a ticket for the cellphone use.
