technocritFather and son incinerated after ‘self-driving’ Tesla suddenly slammed into tree
Is this considered Darwin award material? At least the dad paid for and chose this. The son was more a bystander.
Idk if I believe that anymore. News like this has been popping up for years now.
This isn’t new information though. It’s been happening for years
fallaciousBasisYes. Karmic as well. Patron shitty billionaires, burn to death in their shitty cars.
I’ve had a pretty ugly car accident with my previous EV. Not a tesla. My car was totalled and I’m alive by miracle (I was in a traffic jam, an articulated lorry’s driver was distracted, didn’t see the line of cars and hit mine full force because I arrived just before it).
My car didn’t catch fire. I was severely injured, but the car didn’t catch fire and the doors were opened by someone from the outside without any help from me.
I agree that you shouldn’t patron shitty billionaires, but this kind of accidents happening only to teslas do for a reason.
I hope you fully recover.
I’m almost completely recovered. Two bars in my back are helping the broken vertebra to heal, but for the rest, I’m well, even back to work, thank you!
This is the most important point: is there anything Tesla should have done differently to get a result like your or was theirs severe enough that you can’t really do anything
My car was destroyed, the firefighters came to isolate the battery before it caught fire because the damage was extensive to everything. Still, my car had normal handles, so when the car was hit and everything went to shit, the doors still worked and I could be evacuated from the vehicle. Everything worked as intended, airbags, safeties…
In the Tesla accident, the first thing that didn’t work was the damn door handle. This is the most basic thing of a car: a functioning door. And they fail at that, and not just once, this is commonplace in teslas.
It’s really not commonplace, it gets attention because of the horror. In particular I’ve seen several times cars on the side of the road ripped open by jaws of life. Apparently those were also too damaged to get people out of the doors. Where are those headlines?
I’d rather see results of a fair investigation whether there was anything that could have gone better, rather than internet speculation.
I’d rather see results of a fair investigation whether there was anything that could have gone better, rather than internet speculation.
At the same time, the vehicle’s electric-powered door handles became inoperable once the battery system caught fire, preventing the two from getting out or rescuers getting in – a serious issue that has similarly doomed others riding in Teslas – Shantorria Herring’s complaint alleges.
This could have gone better. This doesn’t happen on other cars and this is also the reason why europe wants to ban this kind of door handles
gizmonicusI wouldn’t buy one of these things under any circumstances for many, many reasons, safety being one of them. I will not, however, participate in victim blaming. Especially when two human lives were lost in such a horrific way due to the arrogance of whoever decided sleek futuristic looks are more important than the safety of their customers.
Fuck, this is like a fractal of liability that somehow they never get in trouble for. Everywhere you look it gets worse.
lumpenproletariatWell you see, being the world’s richest person enables him to do whatever he wants without repercussion. And what’s a poorer person going to do, go bankrupt and homeless fighting his lawyers?
Tesla has been sued. But their brilliant legal defense is that full self driving needs the driver’s full attention to take over. These accidents are human error Not Tesla
You seem to get the point of laws backwards.
wheezyThe dude owns a platform that actively generates nude photos of real people on the platform. Then proceeded to put the child porn generating feature behind a paywall when shamed publicly.
At what point will people realize that laws do not apply to the capitalist (Epstein) class. Shame is literally the only (non violent) weapon we have left and they are actively working to stop that as well.
The only way they will see non vigilante justice is at the hands of a revolution.
…I honestly don’t think rich people feel incredible shame by being referred to as the Epstein class. They don’t care.
They still do to an extent but as their power and influence gains they are able to take more of the mask off. But that mask is only coming off for people like you and me. Its an inverse relationship to that of the uninformed or distracted masses. They are, in reality, better able to control what is seen and not seen by the masses too impoverished or overworked to see past the mask they have built.
They DO care what people think because that gives them power and control. They just only care to the extent that that power and control is maintained.
If they didn’t care what people thought they wouldn’t spend billions to buy platforms like Twitter or to further consolidate the media we consume into what has essentially become a fascist state media of two different flavors.
Don’t think that because they are convincing the public that pedophiles and war criminals are not actually pedophiles and war criminals that they “don’t care what you think”. They do. They just have enough power and influence to make the public misinformed or (for you and me) informed but in a state of hopelessness.
Their power comes from keeping the public misinformed, distracted, or feeling hopeless. They care what you think because what you think keeps you in one of those inactive states.
Parenti is someone to read or listen to.
Parenti - The only thing they care about you is what you're thinking
mercAlso:
Because STONKS.
How come Elon hasn’t been sued into bankruptcy over these deaths?
Class Action Lawsuits: A major class-action lawsuit was certified in August 2025 by a California judge, representing Tesla owners who claim they were misled by marketing regarding the autonomous capabilities of FSD, with plaintiffs seeking refunds for purchased software.
Active Crash Litigation: Litigation is ongoing in at least eight cases involving the use of Tesla Autopilot/FSD during a fatal or serious crash, according to reports as of March 2024. This includes lawsuits alleging the system fails to detect objects, such as a case in Washington state involving a motorcyclist.
$243 Million Damages Verdict: In February 2026, a federal court upheld a verdict ordering Tesla to pay $243 million in damages regarding a fatal 2025 crash involving Autopilot, marking a significant legal loss for the company.
NHTSA Probes & Recalls: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating over 2.9 million Tesla vehicles regarding FSD’s ability to follow traffic laws (including running red lights). In early 2026, this shifted to a “recall query” to verify the effectiveness of a previous software update aimed at fixing the issues.
Criminal Investigation: Reports in 2024 indicated that Tesla is under federal criminal investigation over claims that the company misled consumers and investors about its autonomous driving features.
Tesla would have been shut down if idiots didn’t elect a corrupt President literally selling Teslas on the White House Lawn.
TrackinDaKrakenRun into a tree in any other car, and the airbags will likely save you, and then you just open the door and get out. No flames, no locked doors you can’t open. To me, it looks like Teslas are more dangerous for the passengers in common accidents, regardless of how they happen.
I do wonder who is still buying these things today, because people still are, in spite of sales being down sales aren’t zero, which they should be. There are much better options.
That would be one of the things to establish in court: could they have survived? Despite occasional outrage headlines, the battery pack is hard to damage. It usually takes a very severe crash.
Aside from the horrible fate, it’s not much different from any other car. When running into a tree, airbags protect you to a point. But there Ali’s no technology that can protect you from a severe enough crash. Was it severe enough? Could their fate have been different? Those are the most important questions
Doors often jam when deformed from a serious crash in any car. Often emergency workers have to cut the car to get to people. Any EV has a battery fire issue. But it’s not like gasoline fires are so great either tho.
At the same time, the vehicle’s electric-powered door handles became inoperable once the battery system caught fire, preventing the two from getting out or rescuers getting in – a serious issue that has similarly doomed others riding in Teslas – Shantorria Herring’s complaint alleges.
Terrible engineering. And it cost these two their lives, as well as others.
Wispy2891But those flush handles are so pretty…
From the user manual: it is so easy, in case of a fire, just calmly remove all your stuff from the door pocket, then use nails to remove the rubbery mat on the bottom of that, then take out a plastic cover, there’s a cable, pull that cable. So easy and totally intuitive when someone is panicking after an accident! /s
ObiI guffawed at the “in the unlikely situation your model Y doesn’t have power”. Like in a car wreck when you need to escape?! The most likely cause for total battery failure just happens to overlap with the most likely time you will be on fire, trying to find your way out of this thing.
We wouldn’t want safety to ruin the AESTHETIC, would we?
While I understand the outrage, this is misleading……
- yes the rear door emergency releases suck
- but there were two people in the car so most likely in the front. The front emergency releases are very different, depending on model year. Recent years are very accessible
What’s important for this crash are the front door emergency releases and lack of an outside emergency release. The front door releases are probably fine, depending on model year, but if the crash is bad enough to damage the battery pack, they weren’t getting out under their own power. We also don’t know whether the outside help would have been in time but we do know the electronic latch failed by that point so there was no way to open the door from the outside
IMO if a door has an electronic lock and normally opens with a button (which is dumb), the backup system has to be something you can use if you’re on fire and have a concussion after a crash.
Apparently Audis have an electric lock but still use a regular latch instead of a button. In an emergency you can open the door by just pulling harder on that door release latch. In a Fisker you can do it by pulling on the handle twice. In a Ford Mustang if you yank hard on the door handle it acts as a release. These are all things I can see someone doing in an emergency without thinking.
clifO! Thank you for this picture.
I was in somebody’s Y (I think? I don’t know teslas) a few weeks ago in the front seat and I pulled the mechanical door release across multiple different stops around town before he told me I was supposed to push the electronic “open door” button.
That spurred me to think “wait, if I pulled the mech release by default and it’s pretty obvious/intuitive, what’s all the hubbub about getting trapped in a car because the manual door releases are so difficult?”
I didn’t realize it was about the rear door handles rather than the front until right now. Granted, the front manual door handle is fairly different than “most” cars but I still found it pretty obvious… more obvious than the need to push a stupid little button to open a door.
These two were dead as soon as they hit the tree.
Huh, I guess if I let go of the steering wheel in my car, it’s also going to self-drive into a tree, or wall, or car, even without all the fancy marketing by it’s maker of self-driving capabilities
Yes I hate tesla like everyone else but the driver is the driver. The car is not the driver.
I have a Ford Edge that can self steer with Cruise Control on.
If I take my hands off the wheel for more than a few seconds it screams at me and disables the self steering. For it to work I must have a hand on the wheel at all times.
Same with my Tesla. I’m sure part of this lawsuit will cover whether it screamed for the driver in time.
Realistically that’s even a likely scenario for the crash. Autopilot (which is simply adaptive cruise plus lane keeping) screamed for the driver and disengaged, but the driver was not paying attention
I’d also like to know what kind of road it was on. Some of these descriptions of roads in the uk are scenarios where it doesn’t make sense to think autopilot would work, nor to go fast enough for a crash of this severity.
people crash and die on cruise control all the time.
What kind of asshole puts the life of his family in the hands of a cheaply made gadget?
I feel for the family’s loss: that’s a horrible way to go
…. But the article has a lot of inconsistencies that cast doubt
- they’re in the uk and most of the article blames self-driving but that is not supported in the uk.
- it gets to the end before switching to talking about autopilot, which is supported in the uk. Autopilot is adaptive cruise control plus lane keeping. I never understood how people seem to think this means self-driving: it is exactly analogous to autopilot in aircraft. Those have a range of functionality but are always under pilot command. I used to fly a small plane with single axis autopilot which basically just kept heading, much less capable than what you’d find on military or commercial aircraft, but there was never any confusion about capability
- the article blames the emergency door release complexity which is true, but the description of hidden cable release depends on model year and which seat you’re in: they get partial credit for improving this over time. My 2023 model y front seats are very accessible
- importantly the flush-mount door handles are not an adequate description of the problem. Firstly, the self presenting handles were only on the high end models: these are mechanically presenting so don’t fail that way. The root cause to focus on is the electronic latch. If your only option is an electronic latch and that fails in the crash, it doesn’t really matter what the handle/button is
- fwiw the entire industry is aware of the possibility of current batteries igniting when sufficiently damaged and, including Tesla, has taken measures to prevent it. But there’s only so much you can do. The question is not whether current battery technology poses that risk: it does. The questions are whether that’s an outsized risk relative to other car technologies and whether Tesla could have done more. There have been several announcements of safer batteries but I don’t think they are available yet.
With names like autopilot and full self driving, there’s a reason people are overconfident in the cars abilities.
Any complication in emergency door releases is a critical failure and tremendous design flaw. Emergency features should be incredibly obvious and easy to use, because when you go to use it there’s a huge chance you’re disoriented or hurt. A system you need to look for as you burn may as well not exist.
The exterior handle design is just awful. There’s a reason other countries are making them illegal and it’s not because they’re a safe choice.
There’s a reason Tesla has the highest fatal accident rate in the US despite having some of the best crash test results. You survive the impact to die a slower more painful death.
The question is not whether current battery technology poses that risk: it does. The questions are whether that’s an outsized risk relative to other car technologies and whether Tesla could have done more.
Googling, there also seem to be a consensus that the fire risk in petrol car is way higher than the risk for battery cars. E.g. from theguardian.com/…/do-electric-cars-pose-a-greater…
“All the data shows that EVs are just much, much less likely to set on fire than their petrol equivalent,” said Colin Walker, the head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank. “The many, many fires that you have for petrol or diesel cars just aren’t reported.”
My theory? Musk remotely grabbing the wheel while on a bad ketamine trip
The 1937 New London School gas explosion killed 295 students and teachers.
After some googling, the “Why?!” in the image seems to be completely bullshit, though.
Electric cars have a way lower amount of deaths from fire than petrol cars. So why would there be outrage about Tesla fire safety?
The Comparison in the image also completely ignores number of cars on the street, time period, miles driven. All car models will have fire deaths.
The outrage about the Ford Pinto was because it was a known specific defect which was covered up (fuel tank rupturing when rear ended), more than the number of deaths in itself. As far as I can tell, the number of fire deaths were actually not extraordinarily high for the Pinto. Hence comparing this not especially high number to Tesla for outrage purposes is meaningless.
it was a known specific defect which was covered up
It was not covered up, the Pinto had the same fuel tank design as other manufacturers, it’s just at that period of time, Ford had more cash.
Lawyers do not sue to justice, they sue for cash.
This isn’t true. Read up on some details of the lawsuit. Although Ford had designs overseas with fuel tank behind the rear axle, not one model by Ford or others had 9” or less crush space like the Pinto. They had meetings and reports to discuss crash test results that showed the Pinto vulnerable to fuel spillage based on proposed federal crash tests. They decided to defer any improvements until 1976 to accrue $20 million in savings.