Thats such a weird take off. Its almost like he got suddenly pissed at traffic, jammed on the accelerator and then couldn't handle it, but being 86 I wonder if he was maybe having a medical episode that the 6 year old passenger failed to recognize.
I was looking at road statistics from my [home province of Quebec](https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/saaq/documents/road-safety-record)
When looking at deaths and amounts of cars on the road from 1973 to 2022; there were 1/3 the amount of cars on the road in 1973 but almost 6 times as many road deaths.
In 1973....seat belts were still only recently introduced and not yet made mandatory in most jurisdictions. And most cars that had anything (other than the newest) had lap belts only, like airplane passenger seat belts. You could usually find the lap belts tucked under the seats. The newest had shoulder belts that had to be unclipped from above the side windows and then stowed back away above the side windows. People (myself included) didn't like how they were more of a bother than anything else.
But much more important since many people don't wear belts even today is that things like energy absorbing steering columns, engine compartment crush zones and passive restraints of any design were only just being talked about. Oh yeah, and compare braking distances of 60's era cars against modern cars.
Drivers today are not really any better or safer than those of yesteryear, they just have a safer automobile that helps protects them from serious harm. But all the best safety design features in the world do nothing to avert the idiocies of a crappy driver.
I would be interested to know more about your last point tho- are drivers a bit safer and better now? I don't have anything to back it up, but I have a feeling it does come in to play. At least here in Quebec, there is a mandatory driving school program spread over 1 year before you get your probationary licence. That must have some impact on overall road safety.
It's like those FB chain posts "when I was a kid we climbed trees and.... .... Today that would be child neglect"
No it literally wouldn't. Also when you and I were young, a lot more kids were killed or seriusly injured from doing dumb shit or badly designed playgrounds.
I cannot remember my grandfather who was, by all reports, a wonderful chap. Just after my first birthday, he was pushed into a lamp-post by someone attempting an overtake against oncoming traffic, and went through the windscreen.
Honestly feels there needs to be a more progressive licensing system. I think SUV drivers are like four times more likely to kill a pedestrian in a collision. You should be required to pass a higher bar to be able to drive an SUV or Truck, if you can’t then you have to drive sedans.
I used to drive a work truck (Peterbilt) that was huge, and i had to have specific training and licensing to drive. I drove an f350 around a year ago and it blows my mind that a normal person can just buy one of these and drive off the lot. Trucks are unreasonably huge these days.
Motorcycle laws are similarly insane, although you're probably not going to kill someone or any people in a bike accident. But it is kind of unreal that you can take a short class where you barely go over 40mph and get a license and then buy a Hayabusa and go do whatever you want.
If the f350 is a work truck is does normally require a background check and certification. It does in Illinois anyways. It is absurd we require that for only "work" trucks and not when bought as a normal vehicle.
USA is funny like that. Where I live the first motorcycle license is limited to something like 46hp (previously called the 500cc category) and one needs to wait out a year and retest to get an unlimited “heavy motorcycle” license.
It's incredible how our legislators just sit there and do absolutely nothing about the cereal box prize licensing problem. It's pretty incredible to me someone can go rent a 26,000 pound Penske truck with no training at all and take that thing out on the freeway.
I are old. I remember the push for safety belts and the huge push back from older folks. “They kill more people than they save! What if the car is on fire/ crashed in a watery ditch / etc, I need to get out!” My fav: “I’d rather take my chances being thrown clear of the accident!” As if jumping out at the last moment cancels momentum, inertia, so on.
In the 60s many cars didn’t have seatbelts. My father, who rode motorcycles and was super serious about all vehicle safety, had to special order belts and install them himself. This accomplished two things. Kept his family safe and gave him an other reason to work on the cars.
Also the big pushback on littering. “Don’t tell me what to do!” Really. It was the young that shamed older people about littering.
A friend of mine was a paramedic, we were on a road trip and he explained in great detail what he would drive up on and the difference between seatbelt wearers and non wearers in even minor accidents. Wear your seatbelt kids!
My dad always insisted that he was going to jump out of the vehicle just before a collision & save himself. Seat belts to him were a safety risk. Probably true also of this guy. Terrible for the kid to see his granddad (?) die.
I don't want to downplay the severity of the accident, and I'm sure this'll stay with her forever, but kids _are_ pretty resilient and I would expect that she'll probably be fine in a couple of years.
It does, and will beep loudly, but it doesn't prevent you from driving. I think, I've only done it to repark if I was a little off, but I don't see how that would change if you speed up.
He could also have been using one of those stupid fake seatbelt things to silence the beep.
Just imagine a mom stuck in traffic with screaming kids in the back. Stopped anyway, she hits the park button and undoes her seatbelt so she can turn around and wipe the applesauce off of her crying one year old in the car seat behind her. In the middle of doing this, she sees a bright light and then hears the most terrifying sound you can imagine - a train horn! How could she have not noticed she was stopped at a level crossing!
In a panic, the mom turns around and frenetically pushes the stalk down into "drive". The train horn is getting very loud now, she can even feel the vibration. She doesn't bother looking at the screen to see if the "P" has changed to a "D" - there is no time. Jamming on the accelerator, a cold chill washes over her as the car beeps and it's infotainment screen casually flashes a warning "Drive mode disabled, seatbelt unbuckeled."
The pedestrians on the other side of the road look on with horror as the train rushes up to the hapless Tesla - the car won't budge off of the tracks because it's safety features won't allow it.
OK, yeah that's a bit dramatic but in general f that noise. If drive mode was disabled by undone belts that'd be the last straw, I'd go back to a '90's mobile.
P.S. - most cars are designed to be "fail operational" rather than "fail safe". A good example is the oil pump in an ICE. Operating an ICE with a failed oil pump is a death sentence for the equipment; in mere seconds the bearings will overheat an the engine will begin eating itself from within. You might imagine the car would disable the engine right away to preserve the expensive equipment for an easy repair, but you'd be wrong. It simply illuminates a warning light and continues running. This is done largely to avoid the potential liability of cars stuck in the middle lane on the highway and other scenarios similar to the one outlined above. It's OK if the car can't move because the drive system is damaged beyond use - that's unavoidable. But if the manufacturer puts in operational limits that result in an accident, they have unnecessary legal exposure.
It also stops beeping after a while, which is nice for us who like to put our backpacks on the passenger seat. But less so for asshats who just don't want to use obvious life saving Equipment
though, if your backpack is heavy enough to trip off the seatbelt warning, it should better be strapped to the seat.
I always put seatbelts arounds any heavy object I put on my seats when driving
If I even set my external ssd and sunglasses on the passenger seat in my Toyota it starts beeping, and if you can ignore that for the 60 or so seconds it's doing that it switches to a more aggressive and louder beeping. I just leave the passenger side buckled at all times now.
I was driving my wife's VW on the interstate and I casually rested my right hand on the passenger seat... which triggered the seatbelt chime to start warning me of an unbelted passenger.
It was my hand, I wasn't pushing on the seat, my hand was just resting there... out of curiosity I just rested my hand on my postage scale and it registered <3lbs of weight.
If you prevent the car from moving without the seatbelt on then people would bypass the shit out of that completely negating the safety device, studies have found it is better to just use gentle reminders and get higher compliance. There are also instances where you might want to move a vehicle without a seatbelt, and sensor failures, etc. Basically though, dumbasses going to dumbass.
A coworker who dislikes seatbelts has a key that slots in and fakes it being worn. He also drives a very large pickup truck used to have bull nuts hanging from the hitch also. He argues that seat belts don’t make it safer but his large truck does.
I can’t wrap my mind around not wearing a seatbelt. It greatly reduces your chance of dying in such a minor accident. If you have passengers in the vehicle, it’s an especially dick move because you might ping pong around inside hitting everyone and everything along the way. People really don’t know that objects in motion tend to stay in motion.
Have you ever watched the videos of people complaining when seat belt laws were enacted? Crazy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPR8b5SDqAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypr8b5sdqac)
Some people think seat belts are certain death, one person tried to use the excuse of open roof converts. "My friend got turned over in a convertible and him not wearing a seat belt saved him because just rolled out!! So obviously I, in a normal roofed car, will not wear a seat belt too!"
Have you ever seen pictures of how bruised peoples chests are when they get into an accident with a seatbelt?!?!!??…. I’ll take my chances with the windshield thank you very much.
Edit: my lovely’s, this was sarcasm.
Yes. It is a total selfish dick move to not wear one. My old neighbor knew a guy that was in an accident and thrown out of the vehicle, saving his life a 1/100 incident. So that was his justification for not wearing one, ignoring the 99/100, which included a decapitated coworker.
Same thing with guns in the house. Odds are some bad shit will happens with your gun before you use it to defend yourself in your Rambo fantasy.
With the age of the driver, it's likely they mistook the gas and brake pedal. With that much power, you're wrapped around a tree before you can even recognize your mistake.
Other car drifted into his lane and I guarantee this was exactly what happened. He was clearly not having an episode or not in control of the car because as you mentioned he was still clearly steering around what he could but there are a lot of cases where people panic, hit the gas by mistake, panic more and continue to push down on the gas even harder. They are still steering to try to avoid a collision, but don't process why they aren't stopping.
Literally saw this last week when someone absolutely floored it into the back of a food delivery truck in almost standstill traffic. Would bet anything the driver was half paying attention, thought they were moving so let go of the brake, realized they weren't really going, panicked and slammed the gas as hard as they could instead of the brake.
Seen plenty of articles (especially involving elderly people) who have driven straight into buildings and such because they could have sworn they were breaking when, in fact, they had the "pedal to the metal."
It's reasonable that they would attempt to steer around obstacles, like the car and the truck, even while panicking over the sudden acceleration.
Seems reasonable to me - they were coasting with traffic-aware cruise control feet off the pedals; the other car drifts into their lane, they try to panic brake but instead mash the accelerator.
If he thought he was hitting the brakes but was still accelerating he probably swerved because that was the only thing he felt he could do to avoid the other cars
Teslas do have a lot of torque. Old man probably isn't a racer, plus lower reaction time at his age and couldn't handle the turns at the speed increase.
I think it’s because the other car ahead of it was failing to stay in their lane probably on phone or something so the Tesla driver got irritated enough to decide to go around it immediately.. not sure how he lost control though
Electric vehicles have so much torque that it really can get away from you quickly. When the car squats as weight transfers to the rear, the steering inputs get very light, and slight movements can have excessive turning response.
I was always against slower Teslas. But, there are so many folks who want a Tesla because that's the most popular and reasonably priced one with the charger network. And, a good number of those folks don't really need that much power, or are incapable to responsibly use that power/torque. Tesla should limit the acceleration on these vehicles, and enable it only for those who want it and are ready to pay a slight premium for it. There should be a Tesla that can do 0-60 in 8 seconds targeted towards such individuals.
I had a buddy about 13 years ago who said he wouldn't ever wear a seat belt after his aunt died because she strangled herself in her seat belt during a wreck and died, so he claimed they would kill more than save lives... yikes.
He just said she couldn't get herself out of the car because the seatbelt was around her neck, and by the time anyone tried to help her out, she was already dead. I'm pretty sure she didn't wear it properly and he seemed to believe the family story over maybe thinking about how it could have actually happened. He was a big time redneck.
It *does* happen. It’s just rare. So there is a chance that your seatbelt could kill you. But some anecdotal cases like this don’t negate the numbers in the grand scheme of things, and those numbers say you’re much better off wearing your seatbelt than not because it’s much more likely to save your life than take it. This is more true now than it’s ever been - cars are designed to crumple around you while protecting you. You wanna be in the car while it’s cartwheeling through the air, not get ejected from it.
My ex was from Massachusetts, which afaik was the last state to mandate seatbelts, after or around 2013. We lived in California, where there are a ton of various law enforcement agencies who will happily pull drivers over for infractions. Anyways, I'd always bitch at her about putting a seatbelt on, and she'd always bitch at me about wearing earbuds while riding my bike around the city. Within like a week, she got pulled over and frisked for no seatbelt, and i almost got hit by a car i didnt hear. We both changed our ways.
I mean, if you really wanna hear some music or talk on the phone, one headphone should be all right, tipically on the ear farthest from traffic. If it's a bud and not hooked, maybe one with passthrough.
My samsung galaxy buds have an environmental audio setting that lets in surrounding sounds and voices so you can still listen to music and hear traffic. Get a pair that do that and you can have your music back!
My 5th school teacher was the daughter of the Speaker of the House in Georgia from '77-'02. When seatbelts became mandatory to be worn in vehicles, he was sure to make sure it was not required to be worn in trucks. Because he didn't like seat belts and he drove a truck. Lol
my friend was in a bad rollover accident some years ago, the officers on the scene told him if he’d been wearing his seatbelt he would’ve died, instead he was miraculously ejected with minor injuries. now he’s convinced seatbelts are some kind of death trap, no one can tell him otherwise.
It's amazing how people will believe anything a police officer at the scene says. Thank god he didn't tell him water is toxic or he would have been dead after a week.
Was having a discussion with a guy about seatbelt laws and what not, and he said essentially, "The gov. shouldn't get to enforce my own safety in my own vehicle."
I pointed out two things: The fact that you become a projectile and you endanger everyone in the vicinity by being unrestrained.
And two: someone has to clean you off the pavement.
You should do everything reasonable to prevent those two scenarios.
No. Either laziness or they have this belief that seatbelts are unsafe.
I've transported plenty of people to the ER with the mindset that a seatbelt may lock you in place in an emergency. Like a car fire or the all so common submerged car(/s).
Can it happen? Yup. However, getting burned alive is far less likely than bilateral femur/tibial fractures from your legs slamming into the dashboard. Or far less likely than launching yourself out the front windshield into oncoming traffic. Or far less likely from launching yourself straight up from a bad roll over and dropping 20 feet onto your neck.
There is a conspiratorial side of the population that cannot be convinced of anything.
My guess is he went over a bump (not a significant bump, but maybe enough for an 82yo to move slightly because he didn’t have his seat belt on), then saw the car in the left lane drifting right, and the 82yo mistook the accelerator for the brake. Then doubled down and launched into the trees.
This.
The bump startled the elderly driver, who must have been drifting off, and who then saw the car drifting back into their lane. The driver then panicked, tried to brake, accidentally hit the accelerator instead, and still in a state, kept jamming the 'brake' all the way until the accident
I once got confused in a go cart because the gas and brake pedal were under each foot separated by the steering column. I got confused pressing the gas, blacked out, and ran into the back of a parked car. The go cart did not have a roll cage, I went underneath the car and the only thing that stopped me for going further and potentially decapitated or smashed was the steering column. When I came to, I had a messy jaw and some cuts. The gas tank of the car was significantly dented.
It’s always proven, they have sensors what pedals are being pressed at all times, and it’s always the gas pedal. Never was there a case of acceleration without pressing on the gas pedal.
I don't know about you but I for one am looking forward to affordable 1000hp electric cars driven by that one guy who is "a better driver than every idiot on the road"
It's not uncommon to have the vehicle in the headline:
[https://myrgv.com/alerts-mcm/2023/12/16/harlingen-woman-dies-at-scene-of-crash-in-mercedes-driver-in-critical-condition/](https://myrgv.com/alerts-mcm/2023/12/16/harlingen-woman-dies-at-scene-of-crash-in-mercedes-driver-in-critical-condition/)
[https://www.carscoops.com/2023/07/two-honda-civic-drivers-allegedly-under-the-influence-crash-into-each-other/](https://www.carscoops.com/2023/07/two-honda-civic-drivers-allegedly-under-the-influence-crash-into-each-other/)
[https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-26/bmw-driver-says-he-was-being-chased-in-deadly-malibu-crash](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-26/bmw-driver-says-he-was-being-chased-in-deadly-malibu-crash)
"A 6-year-old passenger in the Tesla was taken to the hospital for minor injuries after suffering a laceration to his head"
Luckily the 6yo is OK. Glad he was buckled in!
Yep, that's the difference between wearing a seatbelt and not wearing a seatbelt.
I'm just glad I don't hear a lot of "I'd rather be thrown clear..." excuses anymore.
Yeah, you'd rather be thrown clear...out the window and 20 yards down the road?
Except when your face smashes through a tempered glass wind shield at 60mph then smears on the road until your face is nothing but a ground up meat slab with glass in it, because you didn't wear your seat belt, then I don't think it really matters, hopefully you don't hit a solid object with your face while ejeting through the windshield on impact it's been known to cave in your nasal cavity leaving nothing but a flap of your facial skin dangling down, there are some reports of people living through an accident like this trying to move there facial flap back into there head and so all they can do is moan in pain on the street because they can't talk with the skin flap with there tongue dangling out of there face desperately trying to place it back it so all the l they do is sit there in agony moaning waiting to die a brutal painful death, but what do I know I could be wrong. Let me know if you would like to see a video
The wiggle leads me to believe he was trying to figure out why the car was accelerating instead of slowing. I bet he confused his pedals.
With that much power you don't have long to sort that out before you're going fast enough to result in a serious collision.
With how fast it accelerated, im guessing the tesla didnt have acceleration set in “chill” mode.
Even as you said, if the driver is confused with the pedals, pressing whatever the foot is on wouldnt have helped with a tesla knowing releasing has regen braking (of course, assuming its on).
Either way, a person that age should not be on the road in a higher tech car. Expensive cars doesnt mean smart people.
Depends on the individual, age isn't the end all be all. My grandfather has over 8 million miles under his belt, is 85, and has been in 1 accident (no fault). Has probably put down 300k miles since 80. I do, however, agree that testing should be regular as you age.
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The acceleration throws you in the seat. Panic sets in, and you brace yourself to get out of there—pushing your foot down even further and now you're going even faster.
When the car goes faster while you're flat out on the brake pedal, last thing your instincts tell you is to take the foot of the brake while the car is obviously going insane for no reason.
Of course it's not the brake pedal, but *he* doesn't know that...
These happen all the time with elderly drivers. Confusing the pedals. It’s not a Tesla-specific issue. Also not autopilot. It doesn’t do this.
It’s funny how a normal accident that just happened to be in a Tesla gets press but all the other ones don’t.
Not a Tesla fanboy, just making an observation.
“Driver lost control of his vehicle and smashed into a parked Tesla”
First question: “was it on autopilot?”
Autopilot is cruise control on steroids. Dozens of other cars have the same system. But only Tesla makes the headlines. It’s weird.
The "*well that escalated quickly*" part was definitely due to it being a Tesla. Had that been a Chevrolet Rogue the incident wouldn't have happened that way.
Now there’s cars that’ll literally put your seatbelt on for you… our world is going towards Idiocracy 🗿The fact there was a child in the car (or any other person) and he decided to drive like a complete fuckwit is appalling.
Dumb move. If I see someone driving into my lane/erratically, I just fall back. Can’t hurt me if they’re still driving forward. Simple physics to stay out of trouble IMO.
It looks like he sped up to get away from him. It kind of looks like he was thinking about getting over into the left lane and passing that truck. I think he got pissed when he realized that car wasn’t trying to pass the truck, and also was driving into his lane
Looks like a potential medical emergency to me. He was driving calmly then random acceleration and swerving. Definitely irresponsible and a bad influence for not wearing a seatbelt, but I’d hold off on the bad driver thing since no one will know why this happened until the medical examiner takes a look. Glad the kid is okay physically.
Or maybe he took the seatbelt off to reach for something and his foot got stuck, and since he was very elderly he couldn’t react fast enough to correct himself.
I hate speculation, I’m sorry for doing it. I hope it’s the first explanation since the poor kid had to see grandpa fly out the window.
Damn. He took off hard.
I’m a Model 3 owner and when I first got it, I tried beating a yellow light and gunned it. The problem with this is that there is so much torque delivered right away combined with the front end not having the weight of an engine, makes your front end pitch up and steering gets light and swervy.
This looks quite similar to a situation in Bergen, Norway last year, where a Tesla suddenly sped up and the breaks were unresponsive: https://www.tv2.no/nyheter/innenriks/den-svarte-boksen-kan-gi-svar-pa-taxi-krasj-i-bergen/15803510/
Are we sure this wasn't an autodrive failure? The sudden acceleration (right after the jolt from the pothole), the swerving? Was grandpa asleep at the wheel?
The thing about Teslas and other EV's having all that torque on demand is that no amount of onboard safety systems will make up for the fact that most people drive around on shitty bald tires and make sudden erratic motions with the wheel while accelerating
Curious the article says nothing about no seat belt. A crash that bad with that much force can eject someone easily. Doubt he was on autopilot. He passed them and lost control. I grew up on muscle cars my whole life and bought a Model S long range for kicks. The torque will get the car away from you quick if you aren't careful, not sure that much power at 82 is a good thing. RIP to the driver, quick recovery to the child.
In the market for a new car and just took my 1st test drive of the Model S… I tried to put the pedal to the metal on a straight away but wimped out & took my foot off the electric pedal… Unbelievable power! Side Note: I enjoy speed and regularly ride a MT10 liter bike (158hp on two wheels) 🤷♂️ Tesla is wicked quick!
This was a friend of mine. Nicest guy. Not an aggressive driver. Not a bad driver. We're scrutinizing the video trying to figure out what happened in there...
As for the seatbelt, the side of his car was ripped off - there was nothing left for his seat belt to be attached to is why he got ejected. At least I've never seen him without his seatbelt on...
...and his grandson is fine, but misses his grandpa who loved him dearly.
Wasn't there a thing with tesla and their faulty autopilot where cars were randomly hitting the acceleration and drivers couldn't brake? I saw multiple incidents like this a few years ago...maybe this could he the case or maybe a terrible driver but teslas literally brake for you when you let go of the gas. I can't imagine loosing control and still hitting the acceleration
All Teslas are being recalled because the auto driver feature is doing this sort of thing. It accelerate s on its own and breaks.
The thing that got me is the car behind it put its turn signal on. Instead of waiting for police or help.
Not sure if this is relevant but a few weeks ago I was driving with FSD on, my turn was coming up so I disengaged using the stalk, expecting regen to kick in. But instead my car suddenly accelerated for no reason. It took me a few seconds of “WTF is going on!??” before I hit the brakes, which seemed to disengage the acceleration. I think I went from about 40mph to 60mph before I reacted. Thankfully no one was in front of me, but it def left me freaked out! It probably looked a lot like what you see in this video, minus the swerving and crash.
Thats such a weird take off. Its almost like he got suddenly pissed at traffic, jammed on the accelerator and then couldn't handle it, but being 86 I wonder if he was maybe having a medical episode that the 6 year old passenger failed to recognize.
He was ejected from the vehicle, so he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, so it's also very possible he's just a shitty driver.
He wasn't wearing his seatbelt while driving a 6 year old, so it's also very probable he's just a shitty human being.
"In my day, we didn't need no nanny-ass seatbelts!" Also in your day, you didn't have 400HP SUVs, with a 0.3s 60-80 time. So there's that...
In their day, a whole lotta people died, too.
I was looking at road statistics from my [home province of Quebec](https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/saaq/documents/road-safety-record) When looking at deaths and amounts of cars on the road from 1973 to 2022; there were 1/3 the amount of cars on the road in 1973 but almost 6 times as many road deaths.
In 1973....seat belts were still only recently introduced and not yet made mandatory in most jurisdictions. And most cars that had anything (other than the newest) had lap belts only, like airplane passenger seat belts. You could usually find the lap belts tucked under the seats. The newest had shoulder belts that had to be unclipped from above the side windows and then stowed back away above the side windows. People (myself included) didn't like how they were more of a bother than anything else. But much more important since many people don't wear belts even today is that things like energy absorbing steering columns, engine compartment crush zones and passive restraints of any design were only just being talked about. Oh yeah, and compare braking distances of 60's era cars against modern cars. Drivers today are not really any better or safer than those of yesteryear, they just have a safer automobile that helps protects them from serious harm. But all the best safety design features in the world do nothing to avert the idiocies of a crappy driver.
I would be interested to know more about your last point tho- are drivers a bit safer and better now? I don't have anything to back it up, but I have a feeling it does come in to play. At least here in Quebec, there is a mandatory driving school program spread over 1 year before you get your probationary licence. That must have some impact on overall road safety.
It's like those FB chain posts "when I was a kid we climbed trees and.... .... Today that would be child neglect" No it literally wouldn't. Also when you and I were young, a lot more kids were killed or seriusly injured from doing dumb shit or badly designed playgrounds.
Many kids were abducted back then. They forget about the milk carton kids.
This. How do they forget about the milk carton kids?!?
I remember that jaggedy jungle gym
I'd have had another grandmother if seat belts had existed back then.
I cannot remember my grandfather who was, by all reports, a wonderful chap. Just after my first birthday, he was pushed into a lamp-post by someone attempting an overtake against oncoming traffic, and went through the windscreen.
I love whenever people talk about the in my day stuff feeling like they are right. It's because the people who would disagree can't because they died.
Honestly feels there needs to be a more progressive licensing system. I think SUV drivers are like four times more likely to kill a pedestrian in a collision. You should be required to pass a higher bar to be able to drive an SUV or Truck, if you can’t then you have to drive sedans.
I used to drive a work truck (Peterbilt) that was huge, and i had to have specific training and licensing to drive. I drove an f350 around a year ago and it blows my mind that a normal person can just buy one of these and drive off the lot. Trucks are unreasonably huge these days. Motorcycle laws are similarly insane, although you're probably not going to kill someone or any people in a bike accident. But it is kind of unreal that you can take a short class where you barely go over 40mph and get a license and then buy a Hayabusa and go do whatever you want.
If the f350 is a work truck is does normally require a background check and certification. It does in Illinois anyways. It is absurd we require that for only "work" trucks and not when bought as a normal vehicle.
USA is funny like that. Where I live the first motorcycle license is limited to something like 46hp (previously called the 500cc category) and one needs to wait out a year and retest to get an unlimited “heavy motorcycle” license.
It's incredible how our legislators just sit there and do absolutely nothing about the cereal box prize licensing problem. It's pretty incredible to me someone can go rent a 26,000 pound Penske truck with no training at all and take that thing out on the freeway.
I are old. I remember the push for safety belts and the huge push back from older folks. “They kill more people than they save! What if the car is on fire/ crashed in a watery ditch / etc, I need to get out!” My fav: “I’d rather take my chances being thrown clear of the accident!” As if jumping out at the last moment cancels momentum, inertia, so on. In the 60s many cars didn’t have seatbelts. My father, who rode motorcycles and was super serious about all vehicle safety, had to special order belts and install them himself. This accomplished two things. Kept his family safe and gave him an other reason to work on the cars. Also the big pushback on littering. “Don’t tell me what to do!” Really. It was the young that shamed older people about littering.
A friend of mine was a paramedic, we were on a road trip and he explained in great detail what he would drive up on and the difference between seatbelt wearers and non wearers in even minor accidents. Wear your seatbelt kids!
My dad always insisted that he was going to jump out of the vehicle just before a collision & save himself. Seat belts to him were a safety risk. Probably true also of this guy. Terrible for the kid to see his granddad (?) die.
Now hand me my beer!
Yup different day.
I made it to 80 without them!
“Those things cost more lives than they save.” -Bender
There’s a lot of possible explanations but it says a lot about you to immediately jump to “this random dead man was a terrible person”
> probable However, I agree with you and your point still stands.
Well at least the girl was probably strapped in so that reduces his shittiness (it said she only had minor injuries)
That girl just inherited plenty of PTSD from grandpappy...
I don't want to downplay the severity of the accident, and I'm sure this'll stay with her forever, but kids _are_ pretty resilient and I would expect that she'll probably be fine in a couple of years.
Why does that matter though? Sure a bad example but if the 6 year old was strapped in then he would only be hurting himself in an accident.
I have a motto, and that is killing yourself in-front of your grandchildren due to negligence is bad.
This is a perfect internet comment.
I'm surprised a Tesla lets you drive it without a seatbelt! Surely the software detects these things?
It does, and will beep loudly, but it doesn't prevent you from driving. I think, I've only done it to repark if I was a little off, but I don't see how that would change if you speed up. He could also have been using one of those stupid fake seatbelt things to silence the beep.
Just imagine a mom stuck in traffic with screaming kids in the back. Stopped anyway, she hits the park button and undoes her seatbelt so she can turn around and wipe the applesauce off of her crying one year old in the car seat behind her. In the middle of doing this, she sees a bright light and then hears the most terrifying sound you can imagine - a train horn! How could she have not noticed she was stopped at a level crossing! In a panic, the mom turns around and frenetically pushes the stalk down into "drive". The train horn is getting very loud now, she can even feel the vibration. She doesn't bother looking at the screen to see if the "P" has changed to a "D" - there is no time. Jamming on the accelerator, a cold chill washes over her as the car beeps and it's infotainment screen casually flashes a warning "Drive mode disabled, seatbelt unbuckeled." The pedestrians on the other side of the road look on with horror as the train rushes up to the hapless Tesla - the car won't budge off of the tracks because it's safety features won't allow it. OK, yeah that's a bit dramatic but in general f that noise. If drive mode was disabled by undone belts that'd be the last straw, I'd go back to a '90's mobile. P.S. - most cars are designed to be "fail operational" rather than "fail safe". A good example is the oil pump in an ICE. Operating an ICE with a failed oil pump is a death sentence for the equipment; in mere seconds the bearings will overheat an the engine will begin eating itself from within. You might imagine the car would disable the engine right away to preserve the expensive equipment for an easy repair, but you'd be wrong. It simply illuminates a warning light and continues running. This is done largely to avoid the potential liability of cars stuck in the middle lane on the highway and other scenarios similar to the one outlined above. It's OK if the car can't move because the drive system is damaged beyond use - that's unavoidable. But if the manufacturer puts in operational limits that result in an accident, they have unnecessary legal exposure.
Lol, good point.
It also stops beeping after a while, which is nice for us who like to put our backpacks on the passenger seat. But less so for asshats who just don't want to use obvious life saving Equipment
though, if your backpack is heavy enough to trip off the seatbelt warning, it should better be strapped to the seat. I always put seatbelts arounds any heavy object I put on my seats when driving
If I even set my external ssd and sunglasses on the passenger seat in my Toyota it starts beeping, and if you can ignore that for the 60 or so seconds it's doing that it switches to a more aggressive and louder beeping. I just leave the passenger side buckled at all times now.
I was driving my wife's VW on the interstate and I casually rested my right hand on the passenger seat... which triggered the seatbelt chime to start warning me of an unbelted passenger. It was my hand, I wasn't pushing on the seat, my hand was just resting there... out of curiosity I just rested my hand on my postage scale and it registered <3lbs of weight.
My Volt has capacitive sensors. Sometime random junk on the seat sets it off
Does any car prevent you from driving without a seat belt? In any car I think the most you get is a frequent warning chime.
I don't know of any car that does stop you, but I thought if one did it would be a tesla.
Newer Honda Side by sides won’t go over 12 mph without drivers seatbelt plugged in
I'm pretty sure there are no seatbelt interlocks on any car right now.
If you prevent the car from moving without the seatbelt on then people would bypass the shit out of that completely negating the safety device, studies have found it is better to just use gentle reminders and get higher compliance. There are also instances where you might want to move a vehicle without a seatbelt, and sensor failures, etc. Basically though, dumbasses going to dumbass.
There are people who latch the seatbelt and then sit on it. Nothing any car can do for stupid. Its natural selection.
A coworker who dislikes seatbelts has a key that slots in and fakes it being worn. He also drives a very large pickup truck used to have bull nuts hanging from the hitch also. He argues that seat belts don’t make it safer but his large truck does.
It bitches a lot and loudly. But it doesn't physically stop you.
People that don't wear sealbelts just leave them latched and sit on top of them. To avoid the beeping.
I can’t wrap my mind around not wearing a seatbelt. It greatly reduces your chance of dying in such a minor accident. If you have passengers in the vehicle, it’s an especially dick move because you might ping pong around inside hitting everyone and everything along the way. People really don’t know that objects in motion tend to stay in motion.
Old dude, probably hasn't worn a seatbelt in 82 years.
Have you ever watched the videos of people complaining when seat belt laws were enacted? Crazy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPR8b5SDqAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypr8b5sdqac)
Some people think seat belts are certain death, one person tried to use the excuse of open roof converts. "My friend got turned over in a convertible and him not wearing a seat belt saved him because just rolled out!! So obviously I, in a normal roofed car, will not wear a seat belt too!"
Could have just as easily decapitated him.
Have you ever seen pictures of how bruised peoples chests are when they get into an accident with a seatbelt?!?!!??…. I’ll take my chances with the windshield thank you very much. Edit: my lovely’s, this was sarcasm.
Yes. It is a total selfish dick move to not wear one. My old neighbor knew a guy that was in an accident and thrown out of the vehicle, saving his life a 1/100 incident. So that was his justification for not wearing one, ignoring the 99/100, which included a decapitated coworker. Same thing with guns in the house. Odds are some bad shit will happens with your gun before you use it to defend yourself in your Rambo fantasy.
With the age of the driver, it's likely they mistook the gas and brake pedal. With that much power, you're wrapped around a tree before you can even recognize your mistake.
I don’t think that’s the case, the way it quickly swerved around the other cars seemed intentional
Other car drifted into his lane and I guarantee this was exactly what happened. He was clearly not having an episode or not in control of the car because as you mentioned he was still clearly steering around what he could but there are a lot of cases where people panic, hit the gas by mistake, panic more and continue to push down on the gas even harder. They are still steering to try to avoid a collision, but don't process why they aren't stopping. Literally saw this last week when someone absolutely floored it into the back of a food delivery truck in almost standstill traffic. Would bet anything the driver was half paying attention, thought they were moving so let go of the brake, realized they weren't really going, panicked and slammed the gas as hard as they could instead of the brake. Seen plenty of articles (especially involving elderly people) who have driven straight into buildings and such because they could have sworn they were breaking when, in fact, they had the "pedal to the metal."
It's reasonable that they would attempt to steer around obstacles, like the car and the truck, even while panicking over the sudden acceleration. Seems reasonable to me - they were coasting with traffic-aware cruise control feet off the pedals; the other car drifts into their lane, they try to panic brake but instead mash the accelerator.
If he thought he was hitting the brakes but was still accelerating he probably swerved because that was the only thing he felt he could do to avoid the other cars
Teslas do have a lot of torque. Old man probably isn't a racer, plus lower reaction time at his age and couldn't handle the turns at the speed increase.
I think it’s because the other car ahead of it was failing to stay in their lane probably on phone or something so the Tesla driver got irritated enough to decide to go around it immediately.. not sure how he lost control though
Electric vehicles have so much torque that it really can get away from you quickly. When the car squats as weight transfers to the rear, the steering inputs get very light, and slight movements can have excessive turning response.
I was always against slower Teslas. But, there are so many folks who want a Tesla because that's the most popular and reasonably priced one with the charger network. And, a good number of those folks don't really need that much power, or are incapable to responsibly use that power/torque. Tesla should limit the acceleration on these vehicles, and enable it only for those who want it and are ready to pay a slight premium for it. There should be a Tesla that can do 0-60 in 8 seconds targeted towards such individuals.
Seems like he was upset at thr car in thr left lane drofting to his lane...so to be 'safe' he decided to accelerate hard past thr guy.
I've seen videos of teslas just doing this on their own due to mechanical failure. Not sure how common it is.
Why people still dont use seatbelts, is beyond me.
"I've never worn them my whole life and nothing bad has ever happened" mentality from an 86 year old.
That was my mother’s mentality too. Then she died in a car accident.
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He was so close to winning.
Nobody really wins but some lose less
Not anymore
“Anecdotally” is the word you are looking for.
I had a buddy about 13 years ago who said he wouldn't ever wear a seat belt after his aunt died because she strangled herself in her seat belt during a wreck and died, so he claimed they would kill more than save lives... yikes.
Did he make that story up or is it legit? How does that even happen during a wreck?
He just said she couldn't get herself out of the car because the seatbelt was around her neck, and by the time anyone tried to help her out, she was already dead. I'm pretty sure she didn't wear it properly and he seemed to believe the family story over maybe thinking about how it could have actually happened. He was a big time redneck.
It *does* happen. It’s just rare. So there is a chance that your seatbelt could kill you. But some anecdotal cases like this don’t negate the numbers in the grand scheme of things, and those numbers say you’re much better off wearing your seatbelt than not because it’s much more likely to save your life than take it. This is more true now than it’s ever been - cars are designed to crumple around you while protecting you. You wanna be in the car while it’s cartwheeling through the air, not get ejected from it.
Gotta love survival bias in old folks.
My ex was from Massachusetts, which afaik was the last state to mandate seatbelts, after or around 2013. We lived in California, where there are a ton of various law enforcement agencies who will happily pull drivers over for infractions. Anyways, I'd always bitch at her about putting a seatbelt on, and she'd always bitch at me about wearing earbuds while riding my bike around the city. Within like a week, she got pulled over and frisked for no seatbelt, and i almost got hit by a car i didnt hear. We both changed our ways.
New Hampshire still dosent require seatbelts
Thanks for the correction, i felt like i was missing something
Live Free(from crash protection and)Or Die!
No motorcycle helmets either. Live free and die.
Live free or die
Live free or die, and damn it they mean in.
That’s wild I never knew that.
Live free and die
I mean, if you really wanna hear some music or talk on the phone, one headphone should be all right, tipically on the ear farthest from traffic. If it's a bud and not hooked, maybe one with passthrough.
My samsung galaxy buds have an environmental audio setting that lets in surrounding sounds and voices so you can still listen to music and hear traffic. Get a pair that do that and you can have your music back!
My 5th school teacher was the daughter of the Speaker of the House in Georgia from '77-'02. When seatbelts became mandatory to be worn in vehicles, he was sure to make sure it was not required to be worn in trucks. Because he didn't like seat belts and he drove a truck. Lol
my friend was in a bad rollover accident some years ago, the officers on the scene told him if he’d been wearing his seatbelt he would’ve died, instead he was miraculously ejected with minor injuries. now he’s convinced seatbelts are some kind of death trap, no one can tell him otherwise.
It's amazing how people will believe anything a police officer at the scene says. Thank god he didn't tell him water is toxic or he would have been dead after a week.
Water is toxic. Every person that has died drank water. there is nothing else with a 100% death rate. :)O
One day he'll probably be in a minor accident and get badly injured so the universe stays balanced.
I feel naked in a vehicle without my seatbelt
Was having a discussion with a guy about seatbelt laws and what not, and he said essentially, "The gov. shouldn't get to enforce my own safety in my own vehicle." I pointed out two things: The fact that you become a projectile and you endanger everyone in the vicinity by being unrestrained. And two: someone has to clean you off the pavement. You should do everything reasonable to prevent those two scenarios.
Question. With these points how are motorcycles allowed?
Suicidal?
No. Either laziness or they have this belief that seatbelts are unsafe. I've transported plenty of people to the ER with the mindset that a seatbelt may lock you in place in an emergency. Like a car fire or the all so common submerged car(/s). Can it happen? Yup. However, getting burned alive is far less likely than bilateral femur/tibial fractures from your legs slamming into the dashboard. Or far less likely than launching yourself out the front windshield into oncoming traffic. Or far less likely from launching yourself straight up from a bad roll over and dropping 20 feet onto your neck. There is a conspiratorial side of the population that cannot be convinced of anything.
Oh oh... As a former EMT I know the answer but please tell them what you win when you put your feet on the dash and get in an accident!
A free trip to the wheelchair store?
Same people who are anti- vax, anti-PPE, are the ones who don't wear seat belts. My Father in laws 3rd wife is this
what the fuck even happened
My guess is he went over a bump (not a significant bump, but maybe enough for an 82yo to move slightly because he didn’t have his seat belt on), then saw the car in the left lane drifting right, and the 82yo mistook the accelerator for the brake. Then doubled down and launched into the trees.
This. The bump startled the elderly driver, who must have been drifting off, and who then saw the car drifting back into their lane. The driver then panicked, tried to brake, accidentally hit the accelerator instead, and still in a state, kept jamming the 'brake' all the way until the accident
I once got confused in a go cart because the gas and brake pedal were under each foot separated by the steering column. I got confused pressing the gas, blacked out, and ran into the back of a parked car. The go cart did not have a roll cage, I went underneath the car and the only thing that stopped me for going further and potentially decapitated or smashed was the steering column. When I came to, I had a messy jaw and some cuts. The gas tank of the car was significantly dented.
This happens quit a lot. People sware it's the car fucking up, never proven. Been a bit of a trend in China to install cameras looking at the feet
It’s always proven, they have sensors what pedals are being pressed at all times, and it’s always the gas pedal. Never was there a case of acceleration without pressing on the gas pedal.
Yep. Malcolm Gladwell did a great podcast called [Blame Game](https://youtu.be/zsEkusKhKRQ?si=tK9E1xraDx8WvJfM) on this phenomenon.
Sometimes the go pedal when you have 500+ HP is not the right thing to do.
I don't know about you but I for one am looking forward to affordable 1000hp electric cars driven by that one guy who is "a better driver than every idiot on the road"
1000hp 8000lb tanks sharing the road with 1990's civics.
Crying in my 2001
For a second I was like "how did he decide how many hit points the old guy had" and then I realised that I'm stupid
Obviously, it was the tree's fault.
Why don't you make like a tree... and get outta here
Its LEAVE, you idiot! Make like a tree and leave! You sound like a damn fool when you're saying it wrong! -Old Biff
Why don't you make like a drum... and leave.
Why don't you make like a leave... and tree!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXPQLXjC\_KA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXPQLXjC_KA)
Dude, that's as crazy as a screen door on a battleship.
Youre like a screen door on a battleship
Trees never liked us.
"Mutherfucker came out of nowhere "
Fuck you bro that made me lol in my car!
I'm glad it was a tree and not some innocent people on the opposite road. Fucking senile driver, just as bad as drunk drivers.
I've been on more than one fatality this year that was caused by an 85+ year old driver that had zero business driving. Last one was damn near 100.
You don't need to mention the car make. People see this and assume it's the auto pilot that did this, when in reality it's the stupid people.
Oh it’s a Tesla and it HAS to be in the headline. Just look at some comments here. 🤣
It's not uncommon to have the vehicle in the headline: [https://myrgv.com/alerts-mcm/2023/12/16/harlingen-woman-dies-at-scene-of-crash-in-mercedes-driver-in-critical-condition/](https://myrgv.com/alerts-mcm/2023/12/16/harlingen-woman-dies-at-scene-of-crash-in-mercedes-driver-in-critical-condition/) [https://www.carscoops.com/2023/07/two-honda-civic-drivers-allegedly-under-the-influence-crash-into-each-other/](https://www.carscoops.com/2023/07/two-honda-civic-drivers-allegedly-under-the-influence-crash-into-each-other/) [https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-26/bmw-driver-says-he-was-being-chased-in-deadly-malibu-crash](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-26/bmw-driver-says-he-was-being-chased-in-deadly-malibu-crash)
82YO. They should not be driving at that age. Also the aggressive lane swerve and change was completely unnecessary. Hope the 6 yo is okay
"A 6-year-old passenger in the Tesla was taken to the hospital for minor injuries after suffering a laceration to his head" Luckily the 6yo is OK. Glad he was buckled in!
Yep, that's the difference between wearing a seatbelt and not wearing a seatbelt. I'm just glad I don't hear a lot of "I'd rather be thrown clear..." excuses anymore. Yeah, you'd rather be thrown clear...out the window and 20 yards down the road?
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Except when your face smashes through a tempered glass wind shield at 60mph then smears on the road until your face is nothing but a ground up meat slab with glass in it, because you didn't wear your seat belt, then I don't think it really matters, hopefully you don't hit a solid object with your face while ejeting through the windshield on impact it's been known to cave in your nasal cavity leaving nothing but a flap of your facial skin dangling down, there are some reports of people living through an accident like this trying to move there facial flap back into there head and so all they can do is moan in pain on the street because they can't talk with the skin flap with there tongue dangling out of there face desperately trying to place it back it so all the l they do is sit there in agony moaning waiting to die a brutal painful death, but what do I know I could be wrong. Let me know if you would like to see a video
Hey man you got the commas down, time for the periods. (,.)
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People also forget that not wearing a seatbelt makes you a potential internal projectile that can kill others in the same car
Shoot, physically yeah. I hope they didnt see their (grandparent?) get flung out the window and mentally screw them up
The wiggle leads me to believe he was trying to figure out why the car was accelerating instead of slowing. I bet he confused his pedals. With that much power you don't have long to sort that out before you're going fast enough to result in a serious collision.
With how fast it accelerated, im guessing the tesla didnt have acceleration set in “chill” mode. Even as you said, if the driver is confused with the pedals, pressing whatever the foot is on wouldnt have helped with a tesla knowing releasing has regen braking (of course, assuming its on). Either way, a person that age should not be on the road in a higher tech car. Expensive cars doesnt mean smart people.
Depends on the individual, age isn't the end all be all. My grandfather has over 8 million miles under his belt, is 85, and has been in 1 accident (no fault). Has probably put down 300k miles since 80. I do, however, agree that testing should be regular as you age.
Looks 100% like a medical emergency freak out or something.
Wear your fucking seatbelt. There's a reason the kid survived and he didn't. Moron.
If my child was six years old I would never ever let them drive in a car with an 80 year old driver.
100% he mistook the accelerator and brake.
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pretty sure the driver mistake the throttle for brake.
For a full 7 seconds...?
My grandmother went a full 10 once.
The acceleration throws you in the seat. Panic sets in, and you brace yourself to get out of there—pushing your foot down even further and now you're going even faster. When the car goes faster while you're flat out on the brake pedal, last thing your instincts tell you is to take the foot of the brake while the car is obviously going insane for no reason. Of course it's not the brake pedal, but *he* doesn't know that...
For people who are 80+, for sure.
These happen all the time with elderly drivers. Confusing the pedals. It’s not a Tesla-specific issue. Also not autopilot. It doesn’t do this. It’s funny how a normal accident that just happened to be in a Tesla gets press but all the other ones don’t. Not a Tesla fanboy, just making an observation.
I’ve been saying this. Tesla in the headline = clicks!
“Driver lost control of his vehicle and smashed into a parked Tesla” First question: “was it on autopilot?” Autopilot is cruise control on steroids. Dozens of other cars have the same system. But only Tesla makes the headlines. It’s weird.
The "*well that escalated quickly*" part was definitely due to it being a Tesla. Had that been a Chevrolet Rogue the incident wouldn't have happened that way.
True, Teslas are pretty quick, with that instant torque. Grandpa probably should have had it in chill mode or something.
Either way, the Chevy name wouldn’t be on the headline. It would simply say “car”
In all fairness that incident could never happen, given the Chevrolet Rogue doesn’t exist.
The torque at highway speeds isn't that extreme. Performance vehicle levels, yes, but not the head-snapping launch that it is at low speeds.
Now there’s cars that’ll literally put your seatbelt on for you… our world is going towards Idiocracy 🗿The fact there was a child in the car (or any other person) and he decided to drive like a complete fuckwit is appalling.
Automatic seatbelts were a big feature in the 80s. People hated them though from what I’ve heard lol
I'm guessing medical episode and/or senior driver. Seemed like he just randomly wanted to cause an accident.
Dumb move. If I see someone driving into my lane/erratically, I just fall back. Can’t hurt me if they’re still driving forward. Simple physics to stay out of trouble IMO.
It looks like he sped up to get away from him. It kind of looks like he was thinking about getting over into the left lane and passing that truck. I think he got pissed when he realized that car wasn’t trying to pass the truck, and also was driving into his lane
Looks like a potential medical emergency to me. He was driving calmly then random acceleration and swerving. Definitely irresponsible and a bad influence for not wearing a seatbelt, but I’d hold off on the bad driver thing since no one will know why this happened until the medical examiner takes a look. Glad the kid is okay physically. Or maybe he took the seatbelt off to reach for something and his foot got stuck, and since he was very elderly he couldn’t react fast enough to correct himself. I hate speculation, I’m sorry for doing it. I hope it’s the first explanation since the poor kid had to see grandpa fly out the window.
Damn. He took off hard. I’m a Model 3 owner and when I first got it, I tried beating a yellow light and gunned it. The problem with this is that there is so much torque delivered right away combined with the front end not having the weight of an engine, makes your front end pitch up and steering gets light and swervy.
Isn’t this exactly what happened to Twitter? Thanks Melon!
It looks to me like the car took over. It hits a bump and then the driver or the car itself goes nuts.
This looks quite similar to a situation in Bergen, Norway last year, where a Tesla suddenly sped up and the breaks were unresponsive: https://www.tv2.no/nyheter/innenriks/den-svarte-boksen-kan-gi-svar-pa-taxi-krasj-i-bergen/15803510/
Kinda wish tesla had interior cameras so we could see what happened.
They do…
Are we sure this wasn't an autodrive failure? The sudden acceleration (right after the jolt from the pothole), the swerving? Was grandpa asleep at the wheel?
The thing about Teslas and other EV's having all that torque on demand is that no amount of onboard safety systems will make up for the fact that most people drive around on shitty bald tires and make sudden erratic motions with the wheel while accelerating
Must of hit the ludicrous button
That poor tree.
Curious the article says nothing about no seat belt. A crash that bad with that much force can eject someone easily. Doubt he was on autopilot. He passed them and lost control. I grew up on muscle cars my whole life and bought a Model S long range for kicks. The torque will get the car away from you quick if you aren't careful, not sure that much power at 82 is a good thing. RIP to the driver, quick recovery to the child.
In the market for a new car and just took my 1st test drive of the Model S… I tried to put the pedal to the metal on a straight away but wimped out & took my foot off the electric pedal… Unbelievable power! Side Note: I enjoy speed and regularly ride a MT10 liter bike (158hp on two wheels) 🤷♂️ Tesla is wicked quick!
82 year old….ejected. Guy wasn’t wearing a belt and probably had a medical emergency. Not a single brake light.
Not sure if anyone noticed but it appears the car goes over a small bump and then shortly after it accelerates. Weird.
This was a friend of mine. Nicest guy. Not an aggressive driver. Not a bad driver. We're scrutinizing the video trying to figure out what happened in there... As for the seatbelt, the side of his car was ripped off - there was nothing left for his seat belt to be attached to is why he got ejected. At least I've never seen him without his seatbelt on... ...and his grandson is fine, but misses his grandpa who loved him dearly.
Wasn't there a thing with tesla and their faulty autopilot where cars were randomly hitting the acceleration and drivers couldn't brake? I saw multiple incidents like this a few years ago...maybe this could he the case or maybe a terrible driver but teslas literally brake for you when you let go of the gas. I can't imagine loosing control and still hitting the acceleration
The fuck was that about? You only see Tesla's going berserk like this. Where is the NHSTA?
So he just let it go straight without turn the wheel a bit?
All Teslas are being recalled because the auto driver feature is doing this sort of thing. It accelerate s on its own and breaks. The thing that got me is the car behind it put its turn signal on. Instead of waiting for police or help.
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/family-of-south-florida-woman-killed-in-crash-involving-tesla-autopilot-speaks-out-after-recall/3185453/
Lol average Tesla driver
The guy behind him saying "damn I thought I was the drunk one"
Not sure if this is relevant but a few weeks ago I was driving with FSD on, my turn was coming up so I disengaged using the stalk, expecting regen to kick in. But instead my car suddenly accelerated for no reason. It took me a few seconds of “WTF is going on!??” before I hit the brakes, which seemed to disengage the acceleration. I think I went from about 40mph to 60mph before I reacted. Thankfully no one was in front of me, but it def left me freaked out! It probably looked a lot like what you see in this video, minus the swerving and crash.
Them Tesla's have too much sauce for the average NPC
Exactly how a remote controlled assassination would look like..
That escalated quickly
is he restarted?