No, they have a digital file or files showing exactly what happened to Mr. Pang’s car. The guy should have either learned to read English warnings and instructions for the use of the product that he bought, or paid a translator to explain all functions of the vehicle and the terms of use of the Autopilot feature. By…

So still user error then.

I can’t find the interview, but Mr. Pang was quoted as saying he doesn’t understand any English whatsoever, so he had no idea what the all English system warnings, user agreements, or commands to retake control of the vehicle meant, so he ignored them. Trying to use an autopilot system in an unfamiliar area, at night,…

If he jumped out of the car, it put itself into park. If the car wasn’t moving, the motor wasn’t spinning, either. Not sure what he heard making a loud noise. Maybe the climate control? Or the battery fans? Those can sound like an engine. The motor sounds like nothing.

Teslas automatically place themselves in park when they don’t detect someone in the driver’s seat. He’s full of shit.

...haven’t seen answered by SpaceX or anyone is why a soft landing in the actual water isn’t an option...

Any water is terrible to mechanical/electronic things. Salt water is even worse.

“The “millionaire” approach would be to put a bunch of parachutes on it and have it splash down in the ocean for recovery, but the Elon Musk “billionaire” solution is to have it auto-land dry and upright on a tiny barge rocking in the windy ocean.”

“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to sign agreements with places like Korou to launch-and-recover on land there”

No offense but all your suggestions are very off.

Don’t listen to any of the other replies. Despite reams of evidence to the contrary, landing on a barge is foolhardy and overly complicated. The only possible reason they keep trying is real-life trolling: to piss off people, like yourself, who know better.

Nice summary of progress to date.

If you are so worried about the safety of lithium ion batteries, why do you keep them in your pocket?

Must have had a “hoverboard” in the trunk for the kids.

You don’t have to read his mind. Reading his tweets will do.

Nope, you are just supposed to do your research before feeding a load of false information to the masses. Journalistic integrity?

Doug, I really enjoy your articles but this is untrue. There is the Signature Series and General Production. The first (approximately) 1,000 are Signature which are fully loaded, which you are talking about. After those are fulfilled comes General Production, which are not fully loaded.

I don’t think you need to read his mind. Just his twitter feed.

Model X has been repeatedly said to start at “5k more than Model S,” the 132k version is the signature fully loaded performance version.

Then why do you propagate this misinformation about the price of the Model X? The first release models are ALWAYS the super expensive signature editions. The mainline models are coming shortly and they will reflect a price much closer to the Model S.