Right now, the self-driving Tesla comes to an abrupt stop, causing a pile-up of EIGHT vehicles

Freeway surveillance footage of the San Francisco Bay Bridge shows a Tesla Model S vehicle in self-driving mode changing lanes and stopping abruptly, resulting in an eight-vehicle crash.

Nine people, including a two-year-old child, were among those injured in the pile-up that blocked traffic on the bridge for over an hour.

Videos and new photos of the crash surfaced on theintercept.com, in which the driver of the vehicle revealed that he was using Tesla’s new “fully self-driving” feature at the time.

Just hours before the crash, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had triumphantly announced that Tesla’s “fully self-driving” capability was available in North America and congratulated Tesla employees on a “major milestone.”

Footage from freeway enforcement from the San Francisco Bay Bridge shows a Tesla Model S changing lanes and stopping abruptly, resulting in an eight-vehicle crash

Nine people, including a two-year-old child, were among those injured in the pile-up that blocked traffic on the bridge for over an hour

According to the traffic accident report, the driver of the Tesla Model S told the California Highway Patrol they were traveling at about 55 miles per hour and shifted into the left lane when the car’s self-driving technology suddenly decided to brake.

The video footage shows the white vehicle slowly merging into the far left lane before coming to an abrupt halt.

Vehicles driving behind the car can be seen crashing into each other after the suspected vehicle malfunction.

Pictures taken during the incident show the vehicles crowded together and stuck to the far left side wall.

By the end of last year, Tesla had rolled out the fully self-driving capability to over 285,000 people in North America, according to the company.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is launching an investigation into the incident that took place on Thanksgiving Day last year.

According to NHTSA data, Tesla vehicles using the “Autopilot” driver assistance system and “fully self-driving” mode were involved in 273 known accidents from July 2021 to June last year.

Teslas accounted for nearly 70 percent of the 329 accidents involving driver assistance systems, as well as a majority of the related fatalities and serious injuries.

Since 2016, the federal agency has investigated a total of 35 accidents that likely involved Tesla’s “full self-driving” or “autopilot” systems. Together these accidents killed 19 people.

A spate of reports have surfaced in recent months of Tesla drivers complaining of sudden “phantom braking” that caused the vehicle to hit the brakes at high speeds.

Just hours before the crash, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had triumphantly announced that Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” capability was available in North America and congratulated Tesla employees on a “major milestone.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is in the process of investigating Tesla over its self-driving technology after a spate of crashes and hundreds of safety complaints from Tesla drivers

More than 100 such complaints were filed with NHTSA in a three-month period, according to the Washington Post.

The child injured in the Nov. 24 accident suffered a scrape on the back left side of his head and a bruise, according to the incident report obtained by the outlet.

Last year, Musk said that “full self-driving” was an “essential” feature Tesla needed to develop, going so far as to say, “It’s really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money and basically zero.”

The term “fully self-propelled” has been criticized by other manufacturers and industry groups as misleading and even dangerous.

Last summer, the agency switched its probe to what it called technical analysis, suggesting it may be seriously considering a recall.

NHTSA has launched its investigation into 16 accidents involving Teslas.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has also accused Tesla of falsely advertising its “Autopilot” feature.

The California DMV remains in the discovery phase for final proceedings.

Tesla shares entered 2023, plummeting nearly 14 percent last week after the company missed estimates for fourth-quarter deliveries despite delivering a record number of vehicles.

Once worth more than $1 trillion, Tesla lost nearly 65 percent in market value in a tumultuous 2022, erasing more than $400 billion from the company’s market cap.

The Jan. 3 stock price slide has devalued Tesla by another $50 billion, roughly in line with the valuation of competitor Ford, which sold three times as many cars as Tesla last year.