HOUSTON – Two men are dead after a Tesla traveling in Spring crashed into a tree and no one was driving the vehicle, officials say.

The crash happened at 11:25 p.m. in the Carlton Woods subdivision near the Woodlands. The car burst into flames after hitting a tree near 18 Hammock Dunes Place.

Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman told KPRC 2 that the investigation showed “no one was driving” the fully-electric 2019 Tesla when the accident happened. There was a person in the passenger seat of the front of the car and in the rear passenger seat of the car.

Harris County Constable Precinct 4 deputies said the vehicle was traveling at a high speed when it failed to negotiate a cul-de-sac turn, ran off the road and hit the tree.

Authorities said they used 32,000 gallons of water over four hours to extinguish the flames because the vehicle’s batteries kept reigniting. At one point, Herman said, deputies had to call Tesla to ask them how to put out the fire in the battery.

Authorities will perform autopsies on both men.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/04/18/2-men-dead-after-fiery-tesla-crash-in-spring-officials-say/?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

  • Woly [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I'm curious as to how they managed to get the car to drive without someone in the driver's seat. One of Tesla's big defenses against their shitty AI is that the car requires an active driver to function. Being able to bypass that security measure would be a huge flaw in their system.

    • CarlTheRedditor [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Gonna be funny when the investigation concludes that the driver seat was in fact occupied by several sacks of potatoes approximating the weight of a human, and a photograph of a person's face taped to the headrest

      • inshallah2 [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        In a coincidence - Sack of Potatoes in the Driver's Seat with a Photograph of a Person’s Face Taped to the Headrest - "Sacko" for short - is my favorite indie band.

    • shellac [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      The Tesla determines if the driver is paying attention by asking them to torque the wheel slightly every minute or so. Theoretically one could defeat it by hanging a small weight from the steering wheel and then moving to another seat. However unclipping the seat belt will immediately prompt you to take control of the steering wheel and once you are out the seat the car will automatically decelerate to a stop.

      Figuring out how to defeat all that would be rather elaborate and dumb. I think the more likely scenario here (Occams razor) is that the police are just wrong, as they've done zero investigation on it since the accident was so recent. It may have been human error and maybe the driver trying to escape the car, couldn't open the door and ended up in the passenger seat when he died? Maybe there was a drunk driver who booked? Who knows and its kinda of silly that they are making just generous speculations so early on. Good for clickbait though.

      • inshallah2 [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I think the more likely scenario here (Occams razor) is that the police are just wrong...

        I agree.

        Also - if the driver survived the crash and he could move - he probably tried to move away from the fire. I guess that's not covered in police training.

    • D61 [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      IF these things are as cheaply built as some of the stories I read, like some riding lawmowers have analog pressure switches under the seat that work as the "dead man switch". Would we be surprised to find that the only thing somebody did was clip the switch and twist the wires together as a bypass?