While this sucks for the family involded, I wouldn’t blame a car maker or anyone else if I accidentally reversed my car into a pond and drowned in it. Rescue attempts were pretty feeble, and if you take a minute to think about it, none of the people at the premises did jack shit either.
It’s a loss for everyone involved, but a cautionary tale as well: don’t dine and wine and hop in your car.
The private ranch seems remote and has tough terrain, which impeded rescue response, delay and limited resources
The fact the Model X “shifter” is touch screen based and Tesla has an ‘auto-decide reverse or forward’ feature might have contributed to her confusion
It is likely the electronics disengaged, making the exterior door handles unworkable, so the only door handles that could have worked would have been the manual release inside
She might have panicked and forgot or did not know about the manual release, since the usual way is to press a button, because buttons are… cool I guess?
She might have done the manual release but it failed to open because of the weight of the water. Once water got in she might have not thought to try again, or she was somehow incapacitated at this point
The glass was evidently not easy to break. The rescuers tried and failed.
Tow truck driver was afraid of the electricity
The people on premise seemed to try, but given that even with trained rescuers with equipment they failed to extract her, I can’t say they did “jack shit”, there’s probably nothing the people on premise could do, except maybe tell her to let some water in quicker to open the door at the right time.
So:
As you say, even if on private property, don’t drive impaired (although it’s not stated whether she was drinking or not)
Beware that a remote property might be great for showing off you have a lot of land, might not be so great if you ever need help, it will take a while and be of lower quality
Tesla’s “button and emergency release as wholly independent controls” is a bad idea
Tesla’s “touch to override, but otherwise let the car decide if you want to go forward or backward” is a bad idea
Drivers should be reminded about how to open the door if water is outside (try to let enough in to open, before you get too deep).
To add to this PSA, on most cars the windows are breakable and if you remove the headrest there’s two metal prongs that can be used to break open the window and escape. If you’re ever in a situation where the only way out of the car is to break the window, remember the headrest behind your head can be used for this.
I don’t know why the auto industry is so enthusiastic about weird new shifter designs, and I don’t know why the USDOT even entertains allowing them.
Remember the guy who played Chekov in those Star Trek fanfics made by JJ Abrams? He ran himself over with his car because it had a weird confusing newfangled gear shift.
What substances are automotive engineers exposed to in college that makes them design cars the way they do? Because I’m from the aviation industry and I FUCKING WANT SOME.
While this sucks for the family involded, I wouldn’t blame a car maker or anyone else if I accidentally reversed my car into a pond and drowned in it. Rescue attempts were pretty feeble, and if you take a minute to think about it, none of the people at the premises did jack shit either.
It’s a loss for everyone involved, but a cautionary tale as well: don’t dine and wine and hop in your car.
Seems like a lot of contributing factors:
The people on premise seemed to try, but given that even with trained rescuers with equipment they failed to extract her, I can’t say they did “jack shit”, there’s probably nothing the people on premise could do, except maybe tell her to let some water in quicker to open the door at the right time.
So:
To add to this PSA, on most cars the windows are breakable and if you remove the headrest there’s two metal prongs that can be used to break open the window and escape. If you’re ever in a situation where the only way out of the car is to break the window, remember the headrest behind your head can be used for this.
Definitely
Almost certainly
Sound like the two biggest parts of the story
I don’t know why the auto industry is so enthusiastic about weird new shifter designs, and I don’t know why the USDOT even entertains allowing them.
Remember the guy who played Chekov in those Star Trek fanfics made by JJ Abrams? He ran himself over with his car because it had a weird confusing newfangled gear shift.
2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee “e-shift”. Fix the next year due to “customer satisfaction“, not manslaughter.
The NHTSA investigation ran for seven years and just closed a month ago! Wow.
Kinda found nothing wrong. Some changes made, complaints and accidents reduced.
What substances are automotive engineers exposed to in college that makes them design cars the way they do? Because I’m from the aviation industry and I FUCKING WANT SOME.
There are a shitload of cooks tending that broth.
There was a time when I wanted a Tesla, but these days I’m more and more happy I still have my decade old car with mostly all physical controls
Killing you is one thing. It’s a small maybe. Almost everybody will get lucky.*
The spyware aspect? The multiple taps to do anything and everything? Those are guaranteed for everybody.
Eventually somebody will have to manufacture something reasonable:
1 - Hardware based physical connectivity disconnection toggle, & strong privacy policy for drivers who want their connectivity enabled
2 - Physical controls
3 - Reasonable price points
*this is still bad :)
_
It has a what?
Seems like a win for everyone involved