A new Tesla owner says the car’s autopark feature drove her side mirror straight into a pole in her apartment complex after two weeks of trouble-free parking in the same spot. Now she’s wondering who is going to pay for the damage, while commenters are divided on whether Tesla is to blame. Em Rowney (@em.rowney) posted a one-minute, 41-second TikTok on 7 March that has drawn more than 6,600 views. In it, she speaks to camera from inside her home, explaining how her 2026 Tesla’s autopark feature broke her driver’s side mirror and why she thinks Tesla should foot the bill. “What The [Expletive], Tesla?” Rowney says she bought the car just two weeks before the incident, and it came with a trial for self-driving and autopark. She had been using autopark daily in her apartment complex’s covered parking area, which has tight spots and a pole nearby. “I have autoparked every day for two weeks and it’s been great until today,” she says. “Today I was autoparking and it ran into the pole and the mirror on my driver’s side completely broke.” She estimates the repair at around $1,000 and describes her immediate reaction. “I straight up panic. I’m like, what the [expletive], Tesla?” she says. Rowney says she filed an insurance claim, pulled camera footage, and submitted a repair request to Tesla with a note asking them to pull the vehicle’s logs. “I know exactly what time it happened and the logs will show that I was on autopark,” she says. “I think they should have to [expletive] cover this fix.” Tell us what you think! View Comments She adds, “I don’t think it’s fair that I should have to go through my insurance for a collision and my insurance go up because of their [expletive] terrible program.” What Does Tesla’s Owner’s Manual Say? Tesla’s position on this is spelled out in its owner’s manual, which tells drivers to “continually check their surroundings and be prepared to apply the brakes to avoid vehicles, pedestrians, or objects” while using autopark. The manual states that it is the driver’s responsibility to “familiarize yourself with the limitations of Autopark and the situations in which it may not work as expected.” In other words, autopark is a driver-assist feature, not an autonomous one, and Tesla considers the driver responsible for the vehicle at all times. According to Tesla’s FSD support page, the driver is responsible “for any and all speeding, tolls, parking and other traffic violations even when it is in use.” Poles are a known issue for Tesla’s parking sensors. Owners on the Tesla Motors Club forums have reported autopark failing to detect poles, pillars, and other narrow vertical obstacles in parking structures and carports. “Supervised Means You’re the Supervisor” Comments were divided, but the majority of viewers sided with Tesla. “Supervised means you’re the supervisor. Tesla isn’t at fault,” wrote Switek. Rowney clapped back against those who conflated autopark with full self-driving. “Autopark isn’t FSD. It’s not like I was blindfolded, that [expletive] whipped onto park so fast and it was probably the 20th time I used it in that exact spot,” she wrote in reply to one commenter. Jake shared a similar experience, writing, “I’ve gotten into an accident while on autopilot too. Normal operation on basic road. Tesla didn’t spend a single ounce of energy to even try to cover deductible.” John Hickman reported an even more expensive incident. “My FSD failed and instead of yielding mine didn’t yield and lady clipped front right bumper. 7k damage, everything was on video. They refused to pay,” they wrote. Not all the news was grim. Mr Matt suggested the service center might help. “Service center has always been amazing and will most likely fix it for free without insurance if you talk to them.” James S offered a cheaper fix: “The mirror is $150 on Amazon and an hour maybe to replace it,” he posted. A Pattern With Poles Other Tesla owners in the comments reported the same problem with vertical obstacles. MLHunter, who says he owns three Teslas, wrote, “The problems with sentry and autopark are with awnings, poles in parking garages or carports. They don’t seem to see the poles all the time.” Beytacular_Nailz described a near-miss during parallel parking. “One day I was distracted while mines was parallel parking on autopark and it tapped the car behind me … I checked my camera footage and yup it hit the car behind me. Luckily there wasn’t any damage,” they wrote. Paovanary simply commiserated. “Yup it hit the dang pole! I’m so upset.” Edbuzz offered practical advice that other Tesla owners in tight spots might find useful. “You can fold the mirrors in and then press save location. Now every time you get to your parking spot the mirrors will automatically fold in.” But he also captured frustrations with autopark, writing “The car is a genius driving 20mph to 65mph but put it in a parking lot and it turns into an idiot.” MDaley posed perhaps the most pointed question, posting “How are they ever going to get to unsupervised if you can’t trust the software not to glitch?” For now, Rowney is waiting to hear back from Tesla on whether the logs show autopark was engaged. Whether that changes the outcome remains to be seen. Motor1 reached out to Rowney via TikTok direct message for additional comment. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds. We want your opinion! What would you like to see on Motor1.com? Take our 3 minute survey. - The Motor1.com Team