Tesla Driver in Mexico Makes His Model Y Fly [VIDEO]

Tesla’s new Roadster may fly with the help of cold-gas thrusters when it begins deliveries, but one Model Y in Mexico City tried to beat it to the punch. Security camera footage shared by TRT Haber shows a Model Y that, in the outlet’s words, “crashed into a house’s garage and flew downward.”

What the Video Shows

The crash happened around 5 p.m. on October 19 in the Lomas del Chamizal neighborhood of Mexico City’s Cuajimalpa district, an area known for steep, winding roads. In the clip, the black Model Y comes down a steep hill toward a sharp bend as a white truck heads up the road. Instead of making the turn, the Model Y goes straight through a home’s entrance gate.

A second camera angle shows the car tearing across the garage and terrace, breaking through the back wall, and launching off the ledge in a cloud of dust before dropping several meters to a lower level.

It was far from the tallest tumble a Tesla has ever taken, though. Earlier this summer, a Model 3 plunged 300 feet off a cliff with two passengers inside, both of whom made it out of the incident with minor, non-life-threatening injuries.

Mexico City’s Secretariat of Citizen Security said the driver lost control while taking the curve. One early report suggested the driver may have swerved to avoid a dump truck coming up the hill, but that was never confirmed and doesn’t appear to be the case from the footage. Fortunately, reports suggest the driver walked away without injuries, while the home’s gate, walls, and terrace took heavy damage.

Built to Take a Hit

Walking away from a crash like that is a good sign for the Model Y’s safety. It was designed with crash protection in mind — we can see in the video that the vehicle’s airbags deployed after it rammed through the garage gate. The Model Y earned the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick+ award earlier this year, the institute’s highest safety rating.

Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software also adds Automatic Collision Evasion, which can engage FSD during manual driving to steer around a crash that braking alone can’t prevent. However, it’s limited to HW4 vehicles on controlled-access highways, so here’s hoping it expands to residential streets like this one soon.

Authorities haven’t published a final report on what caused the crash, and no speed has been confirmed. For now, this Model Y’s short flight will have to hold the title until the Roadster’s production begins in 2028.