Four weeks to the day after being involved in a car accident, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan had a formal press conference for the first time during 2026 training camp.
Previously, he’d met with reporters in his office and clarified that the accident, which happened while he was operating his Tesla, was his fault. On Saturday, speaking for nearly 20 minutes, Shanahan was asked if he’s mad at himself for causing the accident.
“I mean, anytime you cause an accident that could be avoided, you’d feel pretty stupid,” Shanahan said. “I mean, especially when you have a chance to hurt someone else. And so, like, I think you’d get mad when you get a ticket, at yourself. So it was kind of the same. You know, things that, you know, I think everyone’s done to a degree what I’ve done. But, you know, dropping a phone and falling all the way to my back seat where I have to fully take my eyes off the road. You know, it’s something that I normally wouldn’t do.
“I’ve had autopilot for nine years, so I’m pretty comfortable with it and, you know, who knows what happened when I turned around? Whether it malfunctioned or whether I knocked it off? That’s something I don’t know yet. But regardless, that’s — it is always your fault, whether you’re on 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, and 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, or it’s really helped me have perspective on that stuff.”
He also was asked whether he spoke to his players about the lessons he learned.
“I mean, I didn’t, like, sit there and feel like I had to — I didn’t have, like, a ton of guilt over it or anything,” Shanahan said. Like, I think, you know, the word’s an ‘accident,’ and it truly was that way. But you realize how quick and close that stuff can happen. And, you know, when, you know, when you’re going at 20 miles an hour, you’re not really — and you’re on autopilot — I obviously have zero worries. I have so much trust in that stuff. And that was a good lesson that you can’t ever have zero worries. But I think it definitely could be example for a lot of people.”
Shanahan also said that he’s feeling good, and that his head “feels so much better.” He added that he’s still dealing with “headaches and fatigue.” He also said he’ll coach the team in the preseason opener against the Titans.
The biggest new detail from the press conference, as it relates to the accident, is that the car was driving itself when the accident happened. The next question to be answered is whether, as Shanahan said, it malfunctioned or he accidentally disengaged it when he turned to retrieve his phone after it fell from his lap.
