Two dead after Tesla drives into back of parked semi at FL rest stop

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-tesla-crash-into-parked-semi-florida-i75-rest-stop-2-dead-20220707-mdr35dzr6bgczm5y6ylb5dusj4-story.html

by gnicholas • 4 years ago

27 52 4 years ago

orlandosentinel.com

gnicholas4• 4 years ago

How does this happen? Did the driver not realize the vehicle was exiting at a rest stop and not slowing down? Was the driver asleep and relying on autopilot? Did the driver try to stop the car but it malfunctioned?

Do these type of accidents happen much with non-Tesla vehicles? It could just be media reporting bias, or it could be that people don't slam into parked semi trucks on a regular basis.

CodeWriter232• 4 years ago

One of my colleagues, a young and smart man 100% relies on Auto Pilot for a certain routine 400+ mile commute between cities. We have talked to him about it, his experience of never seeing it fail IMO creates a false sense of security in relation to Auto Pilot for him. I doubt he is alone in this kind of thinking.

gnicholas4• 4 years ago

I’ve seen this also. Seeing how my smart, tech-savvy friend reacted to having a Tesla made me less likely to get one.

ihateolives• 4 years ago

400+ mile commute

How is that even a commute anymore? In Europe that would be cross-country roadtrip.

Brian_K_White2• 4 years ago

I just say my house never burned down in my entire life either, that's why it's ok to leave flames unattended and probably we should even disband that waste of money local fire department whose services I have never needed once.

hey20225• 4 years ago

Or could be that similar accidents happen fairly frequently with other cars but links are not posted to HN because they won’t result in a discussion. Tesla posts, on the other hand, lead to a never ending heated criticism.

PainfullyNormal• 4 years ago

Rear-end collisions are the most frequent type of collisions. One of the most effective safety features added in the last 30 years is the third rear brake light that's mounted up in the rear view window. I don't know why it isn't also a requirement for semi trucks.

iasay2• 4 years ago

Most of the other cars tend not to have systems which are marketed at preventing this.

I mean I can drive through a wall with my car quite happily lol

jcranmer2• 4 years ago

Judging from the photo in the article, the truck was parked in a parking space, and somebody... just pulled into the space without realizing the truck was there? It's possible that the truck was moved to its position in the photo subsequent to the accident and that the accident occurred elsewhere, but from the way the car is embedded in the truck, I am disinclined to believe that.

Assuming that the photo depicts the location correctly, my first guess is that an automatic parking feature is involved, because I would be surprised that any driver--much less one with a passenger in the front seat--would so completely miss the fact that an eighteen-wheeler truck is in the parking space while attempting to park there, and continue to miss it for so long to embed the car that deep underneath.

teilo• 4 years ago

There is no way this was automatic parking. The only way for that to happen is if the Tesla hit it at speed. This was a rest area, where off ramps lead directly into parking lots where trucks are parked in rows in the middle of the lot. It was almost certainly the result of an inattentive driver plowing into the truck from the off ramp.

ForeverAngle• 4 years ago

Everything happens in an instant.

unethical_ban• 4 years ago

Shouldn't the trailer barrier have kept the vehicle from going under like that?

ceejayoz5• 4 years ago

I wonder if the Tesla having a trunk in the front instead of a big heavy engine makes the difference there.

norvvryo• 4 years ago

Maybe, maybe not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3MPKLy9qHU

enlyth• 4 years ago

Link for European users: https://archive.ph/Giqfp

azalemeth• 4 years ago

I really don't understand why US news websites do this to EU up addresses rather than not using privacy-obliterating ad-tech -- surely some revenue is better than none plus ill will? When I tried to read the article I am confronted by:

Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.

b112• 4 years ago

Probably, they sold all rights to their stories to a company in your region.

ceejayoz5• 4 years ago

I've seen plenty of US news sites (especially smaller ones) block EU visitors because of GDPR, because the minimal benefit of the occasional EU visitor isn't work the technical effort required.

Seems a lot more plausible than the Orlando Sentinel licensing their content in Europe.

hey20225• 4 years ago

The amount of revenue that is tied to EU visits is smaller than the cost of making technical changes and paying legal to verify that everything is GDPR-compliant.

sshine• 4 years ago

This comment is not available in your region.

jaimex22• 4 years ago

We still doing these are we?

2015 Tesla = Original MobilEye Autopilot.

Here's another car crash but no one cares because it doesnt have Tesla in the name.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/6-injured-after-car-cr...

ChrisClark• 4 years ago

People just want to feel smug about a Tesla crashing due to all the misinformation they've been reading.

Brian_K_White2• 4 years ago

The driver of that vehicle surely suffered due consequences for how they discharged their responsibility.

Tesla is not so far.

The driver of that vehicle only posrssed the power to affect a very smmall number of people with their irresponsible act.

The maker of that car isn't making claims that you can drive their cars drunk, and that car didn't have a "drunkpilot" button.

Elon is voluntarily pushing something which is unwise, wich affects many many more people. The primary guilt is the marketing not the tech itself. There is no excuse for any of these accidents, because human behavior is very well studied. You don't get to create the option to let a car drive itself, and name it autopilot, and then claim ignorance and innocense when people get in the back seat and go to sleep and every other crazy thing, no matter what you write in a manual somewhere.

When, Toyota has even a mere gas pedal glitch, it's a huge deal and all the cars get recalled and fixed, and it was a legitomate honest error while trying to be responsible, not an error while trying to be irresponsible.

Tesla deserves far more heat than they are getting.

jaimex22• 4 years ago

Tesla Autopilot has never claimed to drive itself. Its certainly safer than its aviation equivalent which doesnt disingage as easily.

ie. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-17/autopilot-incompetenc...

mabbo• 4 years ago

The article does not say that the autopilot was on.

Presume that it wasn't for a moment. 66 year old in the drivers seat. Car does something unexpected and then drives at full speed into a solid object.

If this was anything other than a Tesla, the headline wouldn't mention what kind of car it was. Because the author is trying to imply this is the fault if Tesla, with no evidence.

gnicholas4• 4 years ago

It would be very helpful if they could report whether bystanders saw the car drive at full speed off the freeway into the rest stop. If so, that looks more like it’s the car’s fault. If it was momentary acceleration after a normal-speed exit from the freeway, then it’s more likely driver error. For example, the driver might have been fully in control, but then tried to brake but hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Teslas have such incredible acceleration that even a momentary mistake could be fatal. That’s one uniquely dangerous aspect of Teslas. There are plenty of other very fast cars out there, but senior citizens (who aren’t car enthusiasts) don’t tend to buy them. Even among sports cars, the low end torque of a Tesla is probably unmatched.

unforeseen9991• 4 years ago

There wouldn't be a headline if this was anything but a Tesla.

117 People die per day in the US alone from automobile accidents

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in...

failTide• 4 years ago

Fair point, but slamming into large, stationary vehicles seems to be a recurring theme for the autopilot incidents. I'd put my money on this being autopilot.

oittaa• 4 years ago

Let's make a friendly $10k bet. We can use any reputable betting site you choose.

toddh• 4 years ago

This implication a 66 year old with decades of successful driving experience is likely to crash doesn't track.

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/age-of-dr...: drivers 65 to 74 account for 13.7% of licensed drivers, but represent only 6.9% of drivers in all crashes and 7.7% of drivers in fatal crashes.

mrtksn4• 4 years ago

I guess the discussion would revolve around self driving but IMHO the issue here is the lack of rear underride guard[0] of the truck. Safety systems like automatic emergency breaking also don't work when there is no bar under the back of the trailer.

On this particular instance, it seems like there was some kind of bar but not the kind that can withstand a crash.

It's almost certain death sentence when a car goes under a semi, the passengers are squashed by the trailer as the cars body travels under it. It's beyond me how this is street legal.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKP5Djjt2Vs

Edit: Upon closer inspection of the photos, now I'm inclined to believe that there is a proper bar that cut through the Tesla. It looks like the bar did not break, went through the car.

SoftTalker2• 4 years ago

Why do you think there was no guard? It's not entirely clear in the picture, but it looks to me like there is a frame extending down from the back of the trailer to about mid-door level on the car.

mrtksn4• 4 years ago

There seem to some kind of structure but obviously did not stop the car from traveling under the trailer. Also, it looks like the Tesla wasn't at highway speeds either. My guess is that the structure was just strong enough to hold some signs.

ceejayoz5• 4 years ago

The photo looks like the bar was there, and sliced through the car.

mrtksn4• 4 years ago

Inadequate bar or do Tesla's have a weakness for that kind of structures?

jcranmer2• 4 years ago

An image search for "Walmart truck" shows up something like this as exemplary of the backside of the truck: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/walmart-truck-gm1081922326..., and I'm not seeing any photos with that bar missing.

Admittedly, the photo on the article does manage to almost perfectly obscure where the bar would have been. You can clearly see the ladder steps on the right, but the bar that would be below it is obscured by the lid of the EMTs' toolbox.

Open up a larger version of the image in the article here (yay for URLs): https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/..., and you can actually just make out the red/white flashing on the bar below the bottom rung of the ladder and the lid of the toolbox. So the bar was clearly there. It also more clearly shows that the bar cleaved through the frunk pretty easily.

mrtksn4• 4 years ago

It seems like the bar cut through the car like a butter. A design flaw in the car or the bar maybe? That structure was supposed to crash the front of the car, not cut it.

mdavidn• 4 years ago

The trailer has a guard in the photo, and the right side looks intact. If the Tesla was traveling fast enough, it may have sliced itself in half, above and below the guard. Most of the mass in a Tesla is the battery, below the guard.

SoftTalker2• 4 years ago

Looks lie a gruesome way to die, hopefully it was quick.

maxutility• 4 years ago

There’s insufficient information in this article to draw any meaningful conclusions. For example, was the Tesla in autopilot mode or was this purely human error?

magicalhippo• 4 years ago

Seeing the pictures, is it realistic the Tesla was going a safe speed for a rest stop? I know the roof is weak, but that looks like quite the carnage.

Honest question, I don't know much about crashing cars.

duskwuff• 4 years ago

[1] has a slightly clearer wording (emphasis mine):

According to FHP, a 66 year old female driver was behind the wheel of a 2015 Tesla traveling southbound on I-75 at mile marker 382, when, for unknown reasons, the Tesla left the interstate and crashed into the trailer of a truck parked at the Paynes Prairie Rest Area.

That is, the Tesla wasn't intentionally driving around in the rest area -- it started out on the highway, but swerved off the road and ended up hitting a truck in the rest area. So the car was probably travelling at highway speeds, and had tons of momentum when it hit the truck.

[1] https://cdllife.com/2022/two-people-in-tesla-killed-after-cr...

dang• 4 years ago

Two people in Tesla killed after crashing into parked semi at Florida rest stop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32023337 - July 2022 (51 comments)

Two dead after Tesla drives into back of parked semi at FL rest stop

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