Teslas continue to crash into things, automatically – most recently in Michigan, where a Tesla Model Y drove into a stationary state police car. There have been at least 23 other crashes, including three recent ones (more here). One of those occurred in Detroit about a week ago.
So that’s at least two in the course of about 10 days.
The federal “safety” apparat – the NHTSA – is reportedly “investigating” these crashes – some of which have resulted in actual death and demonstrable harm – which is interesting given how zero-tolerance the federal apparat is when it comes to transgressions of federal folderol that caused no deaths and no demonstrable harm to anyone, as in the infamous “case” of the Cheating (but harming no one) Volkswagen Diesels, which were all taken off the road, notwithstanding.
Of course, VW’s diesels were harming something . . . the “case” for electric cars, like Teslas.
It has hard to make a case for an electric car that costs nearly $50,000 – like the Tesla Y that auto-crashed into the parked Michigan cop car – when you could buy a $25,000 car like a diesel-powered VW Jetta or Golf capable of traveling 700 miles on a tank and which only took a few minutes to refuel and which would never need a $6,000 battery in order to remain functional.
Those kinds of cars did a great deal of good.
So they had to go. The VWs, that is. In order to make way for cars like the auto-crashing (and auto-immolating) Tesla.
“Consistent with NHTSA’s vigilant oversight and robust authority over the safety of all motor vehicles and equipment, including automated technologies, we have launched a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash.”
Italics added.
Really?
“Vigilant oversight” over the “safety of all motor vehicles and equipment”?
Italics added, again.
Well, how about the defective Takata air bags still in wide circulation because the federal apparat has decreed that every new car made since the mid-late ’90s must come with air bags and for that reason there are still hundreds of thousands of defective air bags in cars being driven right now – as you read this – their drivers not even allowed to have a temporary turn-off switch installed until the defective air bags can be replaced?
Never mind.
And – apparently – never mind that NHTSA has allowed Tesla to use the public roads to test a technology that is known to be dangerous, having resulted in known crashes that have killed actual people.
What is there to “investigate”?
It is like “investigating” the tide. We know it’s coming in; the why is another matter.Ā Except in this case it is not a question of determining the reason for a naturally occurring event but rather why an artificially created problem continues to be permitted.
A thought experiment will hopefully clarify.
Imagine the “case” of a car – a not-electric car – that was known to suffer fairly regular brake failure, resulting in crashes and deaths. There’s no question about the fact of the failure; that something about the way the car’s brakes were designed or installed resulted in them sometimes not working and for that reason, the cars crashing.
And that more crashes were for that reason certain.
Even if it were just one of out 10,000 cars that crashed, is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that all of the cars so equipped would be robustly recalled – would be taken off the road – by the federal “safety” apparat and the manufacturer of the cars dragooned before various investigatory bodies to determine the Hows and Whys?
This is exactly what was done in the past to Ford over the Pinto, which burst into flames far less regularly per capita than Teslas auto-crash into things. And to Audis that crashed because some owners mistook the accelerator pedal for the brake pedal. The car itself was blameless.
The “safety” apparat requires that all new cars have back-up cameras because a handful of inattentive imbeciles backed up over kids they didn’t bother to look for and which they likely didn’t see because of federal “safety” mandates that have endowed all modern cars with bulbous, jacked-up booties that make it very hard to see what you’re about to back up over,if you haven’t made a special effort to check before you Reverse.
But here we have a technology that is known to not work sometimes – and with sometimes fatal consequences. And which when it does work inarguably promotes zero-attention “driving,” notwithstanding the oilily crafted legalese about “aways being ready to intervene.”
Seriously?
The infamous catalytic converter “test pipe” was banned – for the obvious reason – but auto-crash, which makes a crash much more likely by encouraging “drivers” to use the technology so that they don’t have to drive – so that they can literally go to sleep while the car drives – is “investigated.”
It says much about NHTSA’s “vigilant oversight.”
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety first!
. . .Ā
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They installed a couple of chargers in our little town a few years ago (on my dime, I’m sure). I have NEVER seen anyone using these chargers. Ever. They just sit there, looking all high tech. Uselessly.
VW is the new European Tesla!
Volkswagen E-Mobility Board Member Thomas Ulbrich: āThe key year for the system changeover to e-mobility is ahead of us.ā
Volkswagenās electric offensive has picked up speed as planned. With the world premiere of the new all-electric ID.3 in September and the start of production at the Zwickau electric vehicle plant in November, the Volkswagen brand has already reached major milestones. 2020 will be dominated by the market introduction of the ID. family. The first ID.3 cars will appear on Europeās roads in the summer. Over the next few years, Volkswagen intends to become the world market leader in e-mobility and is investing ā¬33 billion in these efforts throughout the group by 2024, including ā¬11 billion in the Volkswagen brand. Under the latest plans, the strategic target of one million electric cars is expected to be reached end of 2023, two years earlier than previously predicted. The Volkswagen brand expects 1.5 million electric cars to be produced in 2025.
Hi Voz,
All well and good, VW – but I’ll reiterate the question I’ve been asking for 20-plus years now: How will the ID.3 (could a worse name be chosen for a car?) ever be mass-market viable when the masses cannot afford to spend $30k-plus on a disposable car with a useful service life of less than ten years?
I’m still awaiting an answer.
A human driver has accepted personal responsibility for how they drive, whether they believe so or not. If they make mistakes they have to pay for them. Which encourages them to avoid mistakes. Even if technology existed which was effective in driving safely by computer, and perhaps it does, what motive is there to install it? What motive to install anything but that which is most profitable? There is no liability forcing them to do any differently. In fact they are protected from the very liability that would motivate them to either install an effective product, or stop installing any such product. Just another brick in the massive wall being built to separate you from free travel, and separate you from owning anything.
The problem is we people don’t get to have a say in anything. Dictators and their evil pals run the world. We people should get to propose anything we want/need, and vote on it. But we’re all just slaves/peasants and have no power. So criminal insanity rules the world, because they are the only ones that organized and work together with each other, they don’t even do a good job of that, but they’re the only ones that do any kind of organizing at all. The people just sit around and want dictators to make all the decisions and do everything. Well, this world is what the people get with dictatorships. Everything will continue to get worse and worse until/unless the people want democracy and start organizing their local communities.
Gang rape is democracy in action. The 51% telling the 49% to bend over and take it. There are only two votes that anyone can cast with any remote connection to morality. Your feet, and your wallet. Not only that, but they cannot be defrauded. These two votes, left intact, will force which ever gang of psychopaths are in charge to take notice, or go bankrupt. Which is exactly why those psychopaths are working feverishly to dispose of those votes. By controlling your money, and your travel. Aka “the great reset”.
Just so you know, the Autopilot option is a cool $10K! That’s right; Autopilot will cost the Tesla buyer 10 large. I know, because I was over on the Tesla website the other day looking around…
There are cheaper ways to fuck your life up than Autopilot.
Sadly, know too many women who are sold on the whole “car drives you” soviet mindset xD
Reportedly the occupant of the Tesla that smacked a Michigan state police car was charged with driving on a suspended license.
Any competent lawyer would challenge this unwarranted charge on the grounds that the Tesla autopilot was driving, not the innocent client.
Elon, take the wheel
Take it from my hands
‘Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
And save me from this road I’m on
Elon, take the wheel
— Carrie Underwood, Jesus Take the Wheel
“DENVER ā As electric cars grow in popularity, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has launched a partnership to help bring charging infrastructure for the cars to every state park.
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a partnership between CPW and Rivian, an American electric-vehicle manufacturer based in Michigan.
…Rivian is committed to installing at least two state-of-the-art 11.5 kW Level 2 chargers in up to 50 CPW locations, said Matt Horton, executive vice president of energy and charging at Rivian.”
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/new-partnership-will-bring-electric-vehicle-charging-stations-to-every-colorado-state-park
Insurance on a Tesla must be quite high, just a guess.
Teslas do have a propensity to crash and burn or just burn all by their lonesome.
One person driving a Tesla from a remote location using programmed telemetry could really wreak havoc on some city street.
You could possibly remote drive thousands of Teslas at the same time.
Tesla got hacked not so long ago, so it is possible. Steal 10,000 Teslas and have some fun for 2,000,000 miles of driving for five hours or so. When the battery needs charging, aim a Tesla for the charging station, park it there.
You could drive them all into walls out on the highway and crash them all just for grins and giggles.
The possibilities are limitless!
I notice they always go and hit AGWs…. maybe they’re onto something….
Right?! I could start to really like Teslas! (Long as I never have to “drive” one!)
Seriously – imagine if thats one of the hidden “easter eggs” in the software !!!
I think they could actually begin to get on my good side if they only automatically crashed into law enforcement vehicles š¤
Side note, I can already tell that this article’s comment thread is quickly gonna develop itself into one of the best compilations of concisely stated explanations on how retarded EV’s, AV’s are on even just a conceptual level, but also how horrible and costly they are in practice (especially after you factor in how many smart people could tell ya how bad of an idea and what a waste of time they were in the first place, and particularly for anyone with the slightest notion of freedom and a basic understanding of the history of socialism and how govt loves to use technology as a means to control the populace)
The Tesla couldn’t have chosen a better target. Slightly off-topic but worthy of note is a case where a Michigan State Police “surveillance team” ran a stop sign and T-boned a driver in the intersection. The first thing these “professionals” did was to handcuff the driver of the car they T-boned, not being concerned for his health condition after the crash. These “professionals” would have gotten away with charging the driver with a traffic offense and more, but, luckily, there was video evidence from a stationary surveillance camera that witnessed the whole situation.
Nothing happened to the State Police “surveillance team”…the “incident” was quickly swept under the rug.
The Statist in cuffs probably felt the pig was just another one of those darn bad apples!
At least teslas are choosing worthy targets. Bu-dum-chhhh.
I don’t understand why anyone wants their car to drive for them. Shouldn’t those people be taking the bus or Uber?
Anyone with passing experience with computers knows that they freeze, crash, or bug out on occasion. Pilots don’t leave the cockpit to have dinner and a nap while on autopilot, and there is far less to run into up in the sky. That technology has been in operation for decades. Why would anyone trust what is essentially a novelty feature with their life?
But alas, EVs are GOOD, therefore anything associated with them are good, lest their GOODNESS be tarnished.
“They” obviously want driverless technology so us little people can be forced to give up driving. Nouveau riche imbiciles are being used as crash test dummies to make this part of the hell on earth plan come to fruition. Damn the lot of ’em.
My truck is overall solid (5th gen Ram Rebel), but every once in a blue moon the screen goes out, or the audio is distorted and MAXXED. I can drive without the screen, radio or backup camera, but I wouldn’t trust an car that I couldn’t control at all
Zane,
My 4th gen has the same issue occasionally with the screen just not firing up. Apparently they haven’t fixed whatever that issue is in the new model.
The computer industry hasn’t even made a reliable web browser yet after 25 years or so. I am not letting a computer drive my car anytime soon.
They haven’t made an operating system that doesn’t require frequent updates to keep working. Of course the industry has bigger fish to fry. Like constantly surveilling you, and storing the product of that surveillance, for sale or to be handed to the “authorities” on demand.
The oligarchs doesn’t want you using a browser, they want you using their applications, so they can completely control the environment. No add-ons that block ads, no cookie refusal, you must create an account to use, etc. There is no perfect browser, but at least there are options and competition. And even if the site doesn’t fully support the browser you want to use, usually you can do what you need to do, even if the site isn’t as pretty or secure. But with an app, one day they’ll decide they don’t support your device/version any more, and cut you off. Update (brick) your device to a less private version or buy a new device so you can use our app. I’m sure you’ve noticed many of the popular apps don’t have a web version, and only have an app to be downloaded. So you are completely beholden to them and at their whims. One of my credit cards keeps berating me to use the app. But they don’t support my device, so I can’t download it. So I’ll keep using their website, until they cut that off just for the sake of doing so. Ideally for them everything would be on Mac and windows 10 where you can’t download anything unless it is approved by the āapp storeā.