Per some of the Congress who live in the area, there’s a hill that the Tesla would have crested (which may have hidden him when the truck began turning) but there is plenty of time to see an obstacle and decelerate safely.

Same here!

As a Jalopnik author, “I accidentally crashed a Bentley” should never be the first words in your headline.

Wow Torch. This is a great article. Good reporting.

Given that was implicit from the Tesla press release, the driver never saw the semi and the auto brake never engaged.

1 death per 130m miles is really high for a modern vehicle. Divide by the EPA average 15000 miles per year, and you get a driver death rate of 115 per million, I.e 3 times as dangerous as the average 2011+ sedan and 6 times as dangerous as the average 2011+ SUV.

I will give Tesla this: they are masters of PR. When they aced the NHTSA NCAP tests every publication in the country was singing their praises, and there are still people who think Tesla ‘broke’ NHTSA’s test equipment because their misleading press release. When EuroNCAP tested them in the moderate offset (similar to…

The problem is it’s not slightly safer than the average driver. 1 death per 130 million miles makes it at least 3x more dangerous than other modern 4000lb cars on the road.

That’s why Volvo called Tesla out on this earlier this year. They said that semi autonomous driving that relies on human monitoring was dangerous.

Totally this. The average American car on the road is 11 years old and has a driver death rate of about 100 per million registered vehicle years. The average new luxury car on the road has a driver death rate of 26, so the Tesla should be at least 4 x safer just based on that (which send about right given that there…

That statement is deceiving though: it includes all vehicles on the road, and there has been a massive improvement in safety with newer vehicles. If compared to the number of miles driven by comparable luxury vehicles, for example, the number would be at least 10x lower for non automated vehicles (looking at IIHS…

Consumer reports can be really stupid. For a while they rated the Honda civic as safer than the hybrid civic (which was heavier and therefore had lower injury rates) because the noon-hybrid had tire pressure monitoring as standard but in the hybrid it was optional.

The fuel isn’t the issue, maintenance is. Each start carries the possibility of a hot start which can severely damage the engine.

I’m not a mechanical engineer but I think the calculation is missing something. Frontal area and Cd will influence drag, which limits acceleration and top speed. However, you also have to account for the difference in mass. If a big rig weighs 10x more than a 4500lb Tesla, and requires roughly half the top speed…

The want is strong with this one.

Tyler! Are you back on FA, or is this just a guest post?

The BMW Z-3 in baby blue. I was 16 when this one came out and I thought it was one of the prettiest cars on the road.

I had not one, but two different bosses who bought Cessna 150s on eBay, sight unseen, no PPI. Both regretted the decision.

But they don’t. Ford and Chevy models based on American models are all 4 or 5 star rated vehicles under global NCAP. Only Renault/Nissan takes a 5 start rated vehicle, cheapens the crap out of it, and then advertises it as a 5 star rated vehicle.

In a crash with a smaller vehicle, the larger vehicle drivers the smaller vehicle backwards, experiencing a smaller change in momentum, and resulting in much lower damage to the occupants inside. This is why injury rates decrease about 20% per 1000 lbs of curb weight.