Stolen Tesla Crashes, Splits in Half in Fiery Multi-Car Wreck

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Stolen-Tesla-High-Speed-Chase-Fiery-Crash-in-West-Hollywood-265813821.html

by earino • 12 years ago

11 41 12 years ago

nbclosangeles.com

api• 12 years ago

So EVs are good enough for Los Angeles high speed chases now... does this mean they've finally arrived?

jameskilton• 12 years ago

If it wasn't a Tesla, it would just say "Stolen car". Why is the article so focused on it being a Tesla?

warble2• 12 years ago

Because it's a TESLA and they're dangerous!! (sarcasm)

DanBC2• 12 years ago

because News.

Rather than lamenting poor quality journalism people could be preparing for the obvious stories in the future.

eg A self driving car is going to crash and kill people. That will be reported, probably sensationally, by newsmedia.

warble2• 12 years ago

Summary: some jackhole was going 100 miles per hour and hit a honda carrying 5 people, then struck a pole which cut the car in half. Half of it stuck in a building, and the other half of the tesla caught on fire.

This has nothing to do with Tesla and EV fire concerns. Try doing this with an internal combustion engine car and see what happens.

Zancarius• 12 years ago

This has nothing to do with Tesla and EV fire concerns.

Exactly. There was a rash a year or two ago of idiots wrecking their high end sports cars, splitting them in half (and usually killing themselves in the process). The focus of those articles was on the driver and not the car (the titles reflected it too).

Curious that he managed to "significantly damage at least four vehicles." That should be a testament to the Tesla's build quality.

Artemis22• 12 years ago

Surprise, cars break when you crash at 100mph, no matter the build quality or the brand.

keehun4• 12 years ago

I wonder what would've happened if Tesla both had the ability to remotely shut the car down AND then shut it down in compliance with the police involved. Less people would be hurt, a synagogue would not have those damages, a whole lot of people with less stress.

Precedent from 2009 with OnStar: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/onstar-gp...

w1ntermute• 12 years ago

Not sure why that is Tesla-specific, since most cars don't have this functionality anyway. The only reason why this article was even written is because it involved a Tesla, and readers love hearings stories about accidents involving Teslas.

th3iedkid4• 12 years ago

i wonder if its safe to shut down or slow down a vehicle remotely because speed & approach judgements are best left to drivers of the vehicle unless of-course its remotely driven.

dllthomas4• 12 years ago

Probably dangerous, but probably safer than a high-speed chase.

keehun4• 12 years ago

What OnStar did is disable the gas pedal. Brakes still worked, and steering still worked. Imagine if you had run out of gas.

the_ancient2• 12 years ago

Yea.... No.....

That is one of the reason I will not own a Car with OnStar, nor would I own a Telsa is they start doing that

Sure in this instance it may have saves lives but giving the government that kind of power is .... scary....

No, just no.....

dllthomas4• 12 years ago

What if it required a passcode you held?

sergiotapia• 12 years ago

This reeks of a smear campaign for Tesla Automobiles. A regular petrol car would have exploded and hurt much more people.

th3iedkid4• 12 years ago

A regular petrol car would have exploded and hurt much more people. Premise contradicts statement

kristaps2• 12 years ago

If anything this could be an involuntary ad for Tesla's safety, since the driver survived.

Moral_• 12 years ago

Why was this even posted to HN?

th3iedkid4• 12 years ago

keyword 'Tesla'

DanBC2• 12 years ago

how would your product handle bad news, especially if that news is unfairly reported?

rdl• 12 years ago

Wow, the driver (thief) appears to have survived (even if in critical condition at the hospital)?

Not sure if that's an endorsement of the Tesla's safety, quality of EMS in LA, or billions of years of evolution, but I wouldn't expect someone to survive an accident like that.

Artemis22• 12 years ago

I think nobody has ever died in a Tesla yet.

manicdee2• 12 years ago

This driver was out of the Tesla during the crash.

bradleyland3• 12 years ago

The car split in half and the driver was ejected. It would be very difficult to make a case that the driver survived on the merits of the Model S's safety features. That is not an indictment of the Model S, however.

Automobiles are engineered for safety within an expected operating envelope. Automobile safety engineering is a compromise of three factors cost, weight, and safety. Tesla goes above and beyond in their engineering of their safety features, but they still target an operating envelope that is sane. The forces involved in a car accident increase rapidly with speed, so the compromises involved fail hard when you push well outside the envelope.

What is an operating envelope, exactly? Roadway speed limits are (ideally) set based on conditions. Things like the number of side streets, shoulder clearances, road quality, and even the design of road infrastructure (like guardrails) are taken in to consideration. Interstates are the only environment where an automobile should exceed 55 MPH (if you're obeying traffic laws). Roadside obstructions on an interstate are designed with this in mind. City streets are not. When you drive within the confines of traffic laws, you're within the operating envelope. Exceed these parameters, and you're pushing in to territory that was not explicitly considered when engineering the car.

Put more simply, there is no testing standard for impact with telephone poles at >55 MPH because that is never an expected outcome for accidents where operators are driving within an expected operating envelope.

maxerickson3• 12 years ago

I would be surprised if they actually use 55 mph as the cutoff, I would think they look at driving behavior rather than the legal limits, and the effective max speed in many areas is 60 or 65 mph.

It's also the case that states with a lot of rural roads have speed limits, on undivided highways, higher than 55 mph (Wikipedia seems to be fairly comprehensive on this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_the_United_Stat... ).

kristaps2• 12 years ago

Real criminal genius - steals a car that is constantly connected to the mothership and can't be chopped up for parts (hardly think there could be a market for that).

paulyg• 12 years ago

I've seen plenty of pictures on the internet of supercars sliced in half and burned after crashes at that kind of speed. For example the Paul Walker crash. From the picture of the Honda I assume the Tesla broadsides the Honda whiched caused it to spin, slide, and strike the pole.

matiasp• 12 years ago

It would be great for Tesla if first person to die in a Model S was a car thief.

Someone is going to be the first. Lets hope is not a child :S

bryanlarsen• 12 years ago

Why was there a high speed chase, anyways? Don't most police departments have rules that high speed chases should only proceed when lives are endangered?

Stolen Tesla Crashes, Splits in Half in Fiery Multi-Car Wreck

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