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The First Person Ever To Die In a Tesla Is a Guy Who Stole One
mrspoonsi sends this news from The Verge:
Elon Musk can no longer say that no one's ever died in a Tesla automobile crash. But few people will be pointing fingers at the electric car maker for this senseless tragedy. Earlier this month, 26-year-old Joshua Slot managed to successfully ride off with a Model S he'd stolen from a Tesla service center in Los Angeles, but police quickly spotted the luxury vehicle and gave chase. According to Park Labrea News, the high-speed pursuit was eventually called off after officers were involved in a fender bender of their own, leaving the police department strained for resources and without any feasible way of catching up to Slot. Reports claim he was traveling at speeds of "nearly 100 mph," but losing the police tail apparently didn't convince Slot to hit the brakes. Instead he sped on, eventually colliding with three other vehicles and a pair of street poles. The final impact was severe enough to "split the Tesla in half" and eject Slot from the car's remains. The Tesla's front section wound up in the middle of the road and caught fire. Its rear portion flew through the air with such force that it slammed into the side of a local Jewish community center and became wedged there.
Considering he was thrown from the vehicle (likely from not wearing a seatbelt) I'm not sure you could say he died 'in' a Tesla.
So, assuming he wasn't already dead, technically he didn't die in the Tesla.
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
from summary: The Tesla's front section wound up in the middle of the road and caught fire.
Yup, another tesla fire.
See??? These cars are unsafe!
Three cars, two poles, a building, 100mph..and even then, died later?
*amused* give some credit to the Tesla for him lasting that long
Sounds like an anti-theft feature.
Well, that was an electrifying story! I really got a charge out of it.
He probably wasn't wearing a seat belt. Judging from the pictures the driver's compartment and front seat were intact, so the crash would have probably been survivable if he was buckled up.
So, in who's interest is it that the police perform these "for show" stunts?
Wouldn't it be much better to deploy a helicopter, drone or other means of tracking the car from a distance, and not risk killing several bystanders in a crash? This time only the bad guy died, but even him did not deserve capital punishment for a car jack ...
Because Teslas are evil, dangerous cars that are upsetting the status quo by selling direct to the customer. Only manufacturers that sell cars though a dealer are safe enough to be driven without killing anyone.
(in other words, all bad news about Teslas are exaggerated beyond belief, kind of how like cyclists are a menace on city streets due to all of the traffic laws they break, even though cars kill tens of thousands of people a year).
Yeah, just reading the description, most american and asian cars wouldn't have lasted that long. This car was split in half and still managed to embed itself in a building. The car thief must have been going well over 100mph to have a substantial amount of kinetic energy to do that.
Make it another 10, please.
Moral of the story: If you are going to steal a Telsa and drive it through the streets at absurd speeds, then be sure you buckle up! You can't expect Elon Musk to do it for you.
I thought Tesla's had remote kill switches.
Couldn't the police just call Tesla and have them disable the car?
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
So at times the Tesla was being driven at speeds up to 100 MPH, collided with three cars and two utility poles along the way, and eventually suffered an impact that split the car in two, immolating the front half and embedding the back half within a nearby building.
Can't people see how dangerous and unsafe these vehicles are?!?
If something as trivial as multiple high-speed impacts can lead to driver fatality, imagine what could happen in a REALLY serious accident!
Is a win for the Tesla, but it sounds likes it pretty spectacularly failed when he hit something. Was he not wearing a seatbelt? Since the car was split into pieces that then caught fire, would he of died either way?
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Unless he was unconscious from the impact and then died in the fire (as reported the front end caught fire) if no one bothered to rescue him.
Cyclists ARE a menace, to themselves. I nearly killed one two years ago because he blew a stop sign coming down a hill, swerved in front of me, hooked his tires into a trolley track and fell over about 20' in front of my car. If I hadn't been driving below the speed limit he would have been street pizza.
Biking in hilly, high density areas (like downtown Seattle) should require a license. One that can be revoked.
That'll buff right out.
(in other words, all bad news about Teslas are exaggerated beyond belief, kind of how like cyclists are a menace on city streets due to all of the traffic laws they break, even though cars kill tens of thousands of people a year).
Wait... What 'cars kill tens of thousands of people' has to do with 'cyclist are menace on city'? They are 2 completely different stories. In other words, even though the statement about cars kill a lot of people is true, the statement does NOT make the cyclist are menace to be false.
You can never have too many safety features!
I guess they can also charge him with "leaving the scene of a crime"
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See, another one caught fire! These things are unsafe, they're constantly catching fire! This is just one of many smoldering teslas!
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
or tries to blame this on the Tesla car killing someone in a 100MPH accident and not the car thief's actions, is a straight up retard
I have no illusions about Musk doing this to get richer but so far his shown that being a psychopath is not a requirement to being a CEO who might actually like to see the world change for better and move humanity forward.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
To continue your deft analysis of current events, they'll call first and watch to make sure the civilians are out before surgically bombing the thief's house.
Israel has killed over 100 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, in retaliation for three Israeli deaths. So cut the crap about their deep concern for human life.
Out with a bang, not with a whisper.
-- Cheers!
Save the Enzos! whoops, Teslas started as Lotuses, right? same principle.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm willing to bet the guy wasn't buckled up. Even when cars are tore in half in crashes if the person is buckled in they are usually still attached to the seat (even though they are sometimes dead from the car being sheared in half).
There is like a 95% chance that if he was ejected that he wasn't buckled up (the seat itself would've had to been sheared to cut the lap belt). I bet the final investigation notes that he wasn't buckled in (there is no guarantee of survival if the passenger compartment is compromised by ripping the car in half but it's still not likely). Seat belts are seriously strong and secure, even if the car is ripped in half the lap belt should have remained secure if it was buckled because it's anchored to the seat itself.
I personally wouldn't be surprised if the cops find that he would have survived if he'd been buckled in.
"Sgt. Chris Tatar, with the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, said five people in the three vehicles that were struck by the Tesla sustained “varying degrees of injury.” They were hospitalized, and had been released as of Monday, he added."
more cowbell
I'm amazed at how the safety cage is still there, pretty much undamaged, even if the car was split in half...
Looking at the pictures from TFA, looks like he would still be alive if not ejected from the car (if he could've gotten out before it caught fire)
No wonder NHTSA broke their machine while testing roof resistance
http://www.roadandtrack.com/go...
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
>>> for this senseless tragedy
What tragedy? IMHO its actually a success in gene pool improvement. We all need to stop this 'every life is sacred no matter what' thing.
Or Israel will retaliate by bombing Los Angeles.
I'm trying to see the downside.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Considering the crime began with the GTA, the moment he left the service center, he had fled the scene.
" Reports claim he was traveling at speeds of "nearly 100 mph"
So, is that so special in the US? I drove much faster than that this evening on my way home from work on the highway (180 km/h on GPS = 113 mph), But then, I don't drive a Tesla.
I thought Teslas had a literally encrypted key that all but guaranteed the car couldn't be stolen sans key.,
Did the service center leave the key with the car or is the car inherently insecure?
I recently saw a cyclist come from the sidewalk on my right, cross an intersection diagonally across me (between two left-turning lanes of north/south traffic), get back up onto the sidewalk, and then later get into the bike lane going the wrong way, at an alarming speed.
As a motorist and a cyclist, I was completely stunned. It's cyclists like that why motorists hate cyclists.
Nobody can avoid killing you if you don't even pretend to follow the rules of traffic. But many many drivers forget that they are required by law to not run over cyclists, even if they are inconvenient.
I have seen more cyclists do ridiculous things than I could count. I give them a wide berth, but, I have to admit, some of them seem like they're trying to get killed.
Likewise, a lot of drivers more or less don't give a damn and will practically run them over, or off the road, or door them. Sometimes buses don't even obey bike lanes.
I won't ride a bicycle on city streets anymore.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I think the real message here is that Tesla's stellar safety record is due at least in part to its exclusivity and high price tag. The kind of people who can afford it are generally safer drivers. It's not a used Dodge Charger that some 16 year old asshole with a shiny new drivers license and Dad's credit card can buy off of the lot for a few thousand bucks.
I read the internet for the articles.
We apologise for the inadequacies of our car at high speeds, and are investigating ways to make it even safer. We have designed a flexible partitioning system to take some of the energy from a "car split" incident, and will be implementing it in all new Tesla cars, and retrofitting it to all drivers who want it. Additionally, the car will require that the driver and all passengers are wearing seatbelts when the car is driving at speeds exceeding 70 mph.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Don't underestimate the adaptability of a good marketer:
"No owner has ever died in a Tesla crash"
Table-ized A.I.
If we assume that the driver wasn't deliberately trying to wreck the car then technically that battery is still under warranty... even though it's been stolen, cut in half and set on fire. That's how good the Tesla battery warranty is.
Even better is the reason why cyclists have to use the street, vs the sidewalk - Cyclists are expected to be predictable, and follow a set pattern (i.e. the rules of the road), whereas pedestrians are presumed to be completely unpredictable.
Do the crazy cyclists just not grasp the physics of getting hit by a car?
Automobile drivers ARE a menace, to themselves. I nearly killed one two years ago because he turned right from the left turn lane right in front of me, in the middle of moving traffic! If I hadn't been driving below the speed limit he would have been street pizza.
Please. People are idiots. Whenever you get any collection of them in some common place you will see stupid shit. Don't blame it on bikers -- people who drive cars are just -- if not more stupid.
No, but evolution's anti-massive-stupidity system is pretty lethal. Less so nowadays, but... still.
"Hey, think I'll drive triple digits in a randomly active urban environment in a vehicle I'm not familiar with, while (justifiably) paranoid!"
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
He had gotten away before he crashed. Either he didn't realize that or kept driving fast for the hell of it.
In most cases it boils down to risk versus reward. The negative reinforcement, it worked the last time, leads to taking bigger risks.
And some just don't care cause they think they will sue the pants off of you later. Won't do a lick of good paralyzed from the waist down, but hey, they can sue!
And then there are those who are just a-holes, who don't give a crap about what their actions may cause to anyone else. They are right, everyone else is wrong, regardless of physics.
"Menace" is a subjective value judgement. "Cars kill a lot of people" does affect "cyclists are a menace" because both are statements about the dangers of various forms of locomotion. Locomotion itself is unavoidable, so the question becomes which form is safest, and "menace" implies cycling is far from it.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
... Nuff said.
This is why I have a dash cam. Aside from evidence it can capture some very cool road trips.
BlameBillCosby.com
The car was low on battery and misread it as "Juice".
Ezekiel 23:20
There are conflicting reports here. Some say he's dead and others say he's alive, so it would be good to know who's right -
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-10/stolen-tesla-s-fatality-free-l-dot-a-dot-crash-surprises-experts
Technically, Arab insurgents in the area are *all* civilians, aren't they? It's not like they're a part of some nation's army.
Ezekiel 23:20
If I hadn't been driving below the speed limit
Wow, this from a guy calling others a menace. How poignant.
Ezekiel 23:20
Nobody can avoid killing you if you don't even pretend to follow the rules of traffic.
I'm a cyclist, and I follow the rules of traffic to the extent that I can. But the metal rims of my bicycle don't have enough surface area to consistently trigger the vehicle-sensing induction loops at intersections. At some intersections in my home town, I've seen even a bicycle and a motorcycle put together fail to trip it. So in the 35 states that haven't passed dead red laws, I don't understand how to follow the law against crossing the street at a red light, other than by not traveling at all.
Michael Bay will get the movie rights.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
We should all thank the asshole for stealing the care and providing Tesla with more crash data so that Tesla can make improvements. Plus, one more asshole has left this world.
That makes no sense at all. There are probably more jews in Los Angeles than in Tel Aviv.
Dude, the Space Jam website is still up: http://www2.warnerbros.com/spa...
Everyone knows Slot machines are a bad bet.
I can't think of a more fitting end to the thief.
I step off my bike, hit the walk button, and wait for the walk signal. Then I walk the bike across the crosswalk and get back on. It's really easy to become a pedestrian with a bike, and therefore be subject to the laws governing pedestrians. Just get off the bike!
Not a sentence!
Or only pitbulls can kill people, cars, and rain.
Or do give a damn and do those things on purpose. Or will throw things at them. I've only had one or two cases in several years of daily commute cycling where I suspect a driver was maliciously trying to edge me off a road, but in some regions its apparently a frequent hazard, and if anyone brings it up, a lot of victim-blaming happens (e.g. cites story of a time they saw a crazy cyclist similar to yours, then claims the person being harassed by a motorist was probably doing something similarly bad, or attempts to charge the guy for inciting the incident in some fashion (see previous link)).
I try to call out cyclists behaving badly, but I find it isn't all that common. When I'm out and about I notice a lot of cyclists behaving perfectly well -- it's just that the odd one or two that don't are the ones that stick out and you notice. The same is true of any vehicle operator -- it's just that people have gotten so used to seeing several dozen traffic violations every day (e.g. failing to signal, running red lights or stop signs, improper turns, failing to leave appropriate space, various parking offenses) without even touching speeding (which would bring it up to likely some 95% of the traffic on the road -- people failing to exceed the speed limit are more likely to be noticed and considered out of place than people speeding). That one cyclist being crazy (and I agree they exist -- I've seen some pretty egregious cycling behavior before) sticks out more since cyclists in general are more rare, but I suspect fewer cyclists in total behave badly with regard to traffic safety (probably because of the inherent additional danger to cycling).
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
I can only imagine the massive shitfit drivers would throw if they were told the might have to get out of the car to press a button.
And actually, as a driver I have been stuck at dead reds before. Onlyoption was to break the law and go through, after waiting 15 minutes.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I live in Boulder, I bet you don't.
That'd be correct. I live a few states east of you.
I stop, check the road, make sure no cars are coming, and if it's clear, then I'll go
This is the stop sign maneuver, also used at a flashing red signal or a right turn at a steady red signal. At a stop sign, I make sure to slow enough to put weight on my foot before proceeding.
but only have waited twice what the usual time it takes for that light to change (yes, I keep track of that).
I too keep track of how many cycles have elapsed, and I report problematic intersections to the city's hotline once I do arrive. But in the 35 states without a dead red statute, even waiting an hour isn't good enough for the letter of the law. Until about a week ago, it was 36; Indiana's dead red statute took effect on July 1 of this year. Before that, there was one intersection on my way to work where I often had to wait over five cycles for some SUV to pull up behind my bicycle. Oncoming traffic kept getting green left turn arrows while I got an eight-minute steady red in the straight lane. I reported that one to the city and the state, which kept pointing fingers at each other.
But if you do all that, then they won't ever see you do it, and there will be no grounds for them to complain.
Treating a red light as a stop sign works unless there happens to be a police car parked in a nearby parking lot.
dead red laws
I see Virginia is listed. I wish there had been such a thing back in the 80s. I sat for what seemed like 5 minutes on rt. 50, waiting for a left turn arrow. It was mid-day so there was very little traffic (it's a parking lot during rush). I had at least 1/4 mile line of sight, maybe more. I honestly thought the signal was broken, and that's what I told the cop who was either behind me or camped under a tree where I didn't see him. There was no arguing on the spot, and it's the only time I ever went to traffic court, where the excuse didn't fly either. But hey, at least the 70 year old half-blind lady who caused an accident got to keep their license. I learned a lot of lessons that day.
To this day, I also wonder if that cop was dicking with the signals to make his quota.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I too use walk buttons where available. But the intersections with which I've had the most problems have no marked crosswalk, no pedestrian signal, and no walk button.
Injuring three people and denting a wall in order to get rid of a car thief sounds ok to me. Maybe we could design an electric device that simply cooks car thieves right in the driver's seat when they try to drive the car. But until then we can replace the innocents injured rather easily and just maybe other creeps will notice that car thefts often cause the death of thieves.
Unless he was unconscious from the impact and then died in the fire (as reported the front end caught fire) if no one bothered to rescue him.
"I'd never wear a seatbelt! It might prevent me from being thrown to safety!"
They are just covering up that he died in an ambulance. I vote that we take these dangerous ambulances off the road as to many people seem to die in them after a police chase or a road crash.
If he is an American, he should have known better. If he is an illegal alien, they why wasn't he deported for commiting a crime against law abiding people? Where were our leaders?
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
I step off my bike
I was stopped at some lights one time and there was a guy next to me on a pushbike doing the balance thing where the bike is upright but not moving. He suddenly lost balance and fell on the side of my car, no damage to anything but his dignity. I only wish I had a photo of his face because the mental image of it sliding down the passenger window still makes me laugh.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Statistically apples and oranges when considering other cars. You have a class of person who has attained the wealth to buy a Tesla. I'm thinking that person may be a more responsible, less risk taking person than the burger flipping driver of that damned 1980's riced out Honda CRX that just cut me off.
Clearly Tesla is guilty of producing an excessively dangerous armored land-missile and the industry should be regulated to mandate less indestructible vehicles ;-D
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Well, at the equator, the Earth rotates at about 1000 mph underneath you, so your car has to go at least 1075 mph when driving west to exceed the speed limit. 100 mph is nothing... you're practically moving backwards.
"In case of theft, car will split in half and eject occupant into nearest Jewish community center."
Seems a bit drastic...and antisemitic.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Actually no. By firing weapons while hiding in civilian areas and not wearing a uniform of some kind (it does not need to be much) they lose all protection given to combatants and to civilians and can be dealt with however the opposing power chooses. They have absolutely no protections of any kind whatsoever under the Geneva Accords.
Read them. They are not long. A few pages each.
What a bunch of B.S. You run red lights because you're on a bicycle and you know you won't get pulled over for it. Gimme a break with playing the victim! Bikes obey traffic laws only when it's convenient.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Adding to this: some towns will have laws that allow bicycle riding on sidewalks provided they travel no faster than jogging speed. So you can "become a pedestrian" without even getting off the bike. At some of the more problematic "smart" lights, cyclists simply slow down and use the crosswalk, then back into the road.
That said, ones that run red lights while in the road annoy me. It usually means I have to pass the same cyclist *twice*, since they will have passed me at the red light.
You can increase the cross sectional area of your bicycle by getting off and holding it horizontally. That should be enough to trip just about any sensor.
Queue an over the air update from Tesla requiring the drivers seat belt to be engaged for the car to run.
You can still pretend to be a pedestrian, there's effectively a crosswalk there even if it isn't marked and the green light is effectively a pedestrian signal if there isn't a separate one.
That's the problem: the lane doesn't get green lights. Oncoming traffic gets left turn arrow after left turn arrow, which last the whole phase.
So do car drivers as I've noticed over the past 40 years. Take away the insurance requirements & penalties and North American drivers will behave just as badly, probably worse and definitely far more lethally.
Auto drivers aren't better people than cyclists; they're merely under greater external control. Period.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
...Slot car racing!
Tom Geller
Its either busses or trucks that are the number one killers of cyclists. Heavy, slow moving and surrounded by blind spots, and if you go under the wheels of a truck or bus there's pretty much no coming back. Squelch! Very often the driver wont even know they've hit someone.
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
Parts of I-15 in Utah, I-10 and I-20 in Texas are 80 mph and a toll road in Houston Texas is 85 mph.
Has been for several years now.
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
3 Israeli deaths and 700+ rockets per day being shot willy-nilly into densely populated areas. But yeah, sure, let's pretend like the Palestinians aren't doing everything they can to provoke Israel and then crying when they get hit.
Did he have a nice bike? If you hit him, can you try not to mangle the frame? I'm always looking for new bikes when their former owners learn about traffic safety.
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The best part about cyclists running red lights is they still get there faster than they would, but you still beat them there. This is great because a lot of people are still thinking about queued cars and, once in a while, someone will complain loudly about how the cyclist isn't getting there any faster because they passed him.
Then you have two idiots to gossip about.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
How about pushing the pedestrian cross walk button? If there isn't one then probably the only "legal" way to cross is to dismount (become a pedestrian) and walk across. Also, I think there is a law for dealing with lights that are not functioning properly which probably says treat it like a stop sign.
JimFive
Please stop using the word theory when you mean hypothesis.
there isn't one
Correct.
then probably the only "legal" way to cross is to dismount (become a pedestrian) and walk across
Yet the city somehow can't spend money for a "CYCLISTS DISMOUNT" sign.
the 35 states that haven't passed dead red laws
Also, I think there is a law for dealing with lights that are not functioning properly which probably says treat it like a stop sign.
The source implies that only about 15 U.S. states have such a law about malfunctioning traffic signals.