Footage of out-of-control Tesla flying into Greater Columbus Convention Center

It is possible, coming south on Hwy 315. It’s a winding path down some intersecting ramps, then on to Vine St.

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My thought too. It likely may not be the “phone” function of cellphones, it may be their use as a video game platform and porn provider.

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I wonder if it would be possible to share this footage or articles on Twitter in the future…

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I’ve seen some bad parking, but this one takes the cake.

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based on the Google satellite images (which are supposedly from 2022)

Google Maps and Google Earth images can be stitched together from many more source images than many people realize, so putting a single date on a composite is tricky business. A single tile at a given level of detail may include actual satellite photographs, aerial images (from a small plane), and Street View images from the cars. Depending of the level of detail, the result may not even be stitched in the traditional sense, but a rendering of a 3D model–generated from stereo images and/or lidar point clouds from the street view cars–textured with (post-processed) pixels from many different photos taken at different times. My guess is that the date shown is from the most recent photo that contributed more than a few pixels to the final rendering.

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So there have been cases of traditional cars having their brakes fail or accelerator stuck. I have always thought if that was to happen to me, turn the key off, or put it in neutral. Sure the power steering would go, but you can muscle that for some control (I had an old Datsun that didn’t have power steering). But with newer cars that are all fly by wire, that isn’t possible. I would think a kill switch would make it stop acceleration, but you would probably lose all functions and at the mercy of physics as to where you end up. :confused:

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It is Vine Street. From what I see on Google Earth, if you’re on SB 315, there are signs for Neil Ave that take you on a transition ramp for 670. But if you keep following the Neil signs, you’ll take an exit from the transition ramp that dumps onto Vine Street. The first intersection from there is Vine and Neil, so you’d have to turn right or left to actually travel on Neil. If you don’t turn, you’ll pass through a neighborhood Google Earth shows aptly called “FLYTOWN” before hitting (pun 1/2 intended) the convention center.

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That’s the only possibility that seems to make sense, despite the reporting of exiting onto Neil Avenue.

Edit: Ahh:

That makes it make sense.

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Having watched hours and hours of bad driver compilation videos on YT because of my enthusiastic nephew, it seems like the drivers do one of two things when they panic. They either can’t find the right pedal to hit or they let go of the controls fully and let Jesus take the wheel. This seems to be a case of the driver being unable to find the right pedal while in a panic.

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Several possible explanations, combine as you wish:

  • Inexperienced driver
  • Unfamiliar vehicle
  • Intoxicated / inebriated / too high / etc.
  • Distracted (Think of the children!) (Also, think of the cellphones!)

It’s a miracle any of us are still alive.

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So if it turns out the Tesla was in self-driving mode, does that mean the car was on methanol?

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So, for sure, when self driving cars become a viable thing, they will be significantly safer than human drivers. It won’t completely end accidents.

but our perceptions of accidents when a person does it are either, “That guy was an idiot!!” or “Oof, bad luck.” because we all can see ourselves getting into an accident through no or little fault of our own.

If it is a mechanical part that fails, then it is shrugged off as, “Things break!”

When a self driving car does it, we can put all of the blame on the computer and have none of the excuses that “all systems fail at some point”. Computers have to be infallible. Which, they aren’t, and cars won’t ever be.

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Sort of. Takata airbag failures and Jeep “unintended movement” failures killed people, and those companies were held liable for those failures.

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he lost control of his brakes

Yeah, right.

The first section of video, even with its slow frame rate, did look as if he suddenly put his foot on the accelerator, not the brake.

(And isn’t the accelerator a brake anyway, in an EV if they don’t coast when the foot is taken off, but actually slow down quite fast?)

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Sandra Bullock has been trying to warn us about this since 1995!

image

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Tesla doesn’t have a parking brake or a gearshift, and to turn off the engine you have to tell it to park.

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That depends on the settings. By default every EV I’ve driven has regenerative braking turned way down, almost to zero. It’s silly, but they do this to make the car feel like an ICE with an automatic transmission because that’s what people are used to. So they coast a lot.

Some now let you dial that out. Like the Chevy Bolt can crank up the regeneration and has a regen paddle on the steering wheel. With both of those, you can stop the car dead on regeneration alone, which they call “one pedal driving”. You basically never touch the brakes except in a panic stop. It’s awesome once you’re used to it. You won’t want to drive any other way. This coming from someone who her spent her whole life until that point driving with three pedals, frequently in cars without synchros in the transmission, even. “Synchros? Such luxury!” I would have said. :grin:

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Or rather, the parking brake is engaged automatically when you put it in park, there’s no separate control for it. I presume the car would ignore having the park button pressed when moving any faster than a walk, but I haven’t actually tested it because I’m not out of my freaking mind, unlike the driver in the video. Who appears to have forgotten the other expedient thing to do if your brakes don’t work: take your foot off the accelerator.

Tesla defaults their regen to high, though it’s possible to dial it down to low if you really want to. You can’t turn it off completely though. They also have a goofy “creep” feature you can turn on if you really love the old-skool feel of absentmindedly edging out into the intersection while waiting at a red light. Again, they default it off.

But even if the driver had dialed regen down as much as possible, that still doesn’t explain 70 mph at that point in their drive. Either they had their foot on the accelerator (my bet) or something was really, really wrong, which will come out in due course of time.

P.S.: No synchro? Mad props!

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Which is why I think self driving cars are further away than many people believe. Even if there are fewer accidents, civil (and criminal) responsibility for them shifts to the designers and manufacturers of the self driving cars.

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Same here. I would throw that thing in neutral as soon as possible. I’d be reluctant to turn off the car though (unless absolutely necessary) because it could lock up the steering wheel.

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