It’s time to have a serious reckoning regarding minors using FSD. I know this will be an emotionally charged topic. So, let’s get into it. My son has been driving a used 2020 Model 3. Like many parents, we wanted him to learn manual skills before relying on FSD. Three weeks ago he totaled it. He was ruled to be at fault, and FSD was not engaged (parental controls were in place, but had no bearing on the accident). It was a simple failure-to-yield situation that even HW3 FSD handles routinely. If he (and his little brother) had been killed, as an FSD advocate I would never have forgiven myself. The numbers explain why this hits different for under-21 drivers: - 16-19 year-olds have a fatal crash rate per mile driven roughly 3× higher than drivers 20 and older, and overall crash rates over 4× higher (IIHS). - That is exactly why their insurance costs 4–5× more. - Prefrontal cortex development (judgment, impulse control, risk assessment) continues into the mid-20s. Young drivers are not just “inexperienced”. They are developmentally higher-risk by default. Here’s the thing. There is no evidence that forcing a 16-year-old onto the road in pure manual mode produces better long-term drivers than letting them gain experience with a strong safety layer. It seems to be a romantic notion akin to pushing a bird out of the nest to learn to fly. Graduated licensing and delayed full privileges exist because pure early exposure is riskier. Kids who start later (or under tighter restrictions) generally show better outcomes. FSD does not replace learning to drive. It raises the odds that the kid survives long enough to become an experienced one as the brain matures. Tesla’s own fleet data consistently shows substantially lower collision rates when FSD is engaged versus manual driving. For the highest-risk demographic on the road, that is not a luxury. Using FSD is the rational choice. We are not heading toward a manual future. Autonomy is coming. Using the safer tool while they still practice the skills is the approach that actually prioritizes their survival. If I had required FSD that day, we would not be dealing with the financial and emotional aftermath we are dealing with now. Every kid is different. And this is in no way an attempt to tell parents how to raise their kids. It’s just a simple explanation of how we started, and how we’ve changed our minds.