Summary

A Tesla Cybertruck crashed in Piedmont last November, killing three college students after hitting a cement wall and bursting into flames.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) attributed the crash to intoxication and high speed but found that the victims likely died from the fire.

Testimony revealed the vehicle’s doors would not open after the crash, preventing rescue attempts. A survivor was pulled out after a bystander broke a window with a tree branch.

The CHP’s investigation into the crash remains ongoing.

      • @icecoldfire@endlesstalk.org
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        11 month ago

        I wonder what dad thinks of this? He’s probably all in and ordered another Leon before the funeral. That’s the thing with a lot of these MAGAs, even when it personally affects them, they still will not change their point of view or give pause to even think about it. Dad will probably double down on the CT now and think it’s all the “lamestream” media that is making this up. It’s very difficult to fight that level of fanaticism.

    • WIZARD POPE💫
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      31 month ago

      Their testing was like yeah we took the window and sobmerged it to the bottom of the bay. Of course it would survive.

  • @skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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    71 month ago

    I bet, if they were to analyze the car’s logs, they’ll also find that nasty behavior in the software, where it disables all the autodrive stuff before impact, including ceasing to brake, so it can’t be “blamed” for causing a wreck. (Whether or not they were using it at the time.)

  • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    461 month ago

    But there’s emergency latches!

    They’re just hidden somewhere in the doors and you need the owner’s manual to figure out where they are…

  • @Jericho_One@lemmy.world
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    81 month ago

    One of the worst things about this incident is that it was some teenagers and early 20s kids. College freshman that burned to death or died of inhalation while someone tried to rescue them 😢

    • 🔰Hurling⚜️Durling🔱
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      131 month ago

      That is absolutely horrible and heartbreaking to read. I wish more people would actually understand what dangerous pieces of trash Tesla’s are and quit buying them all together.

  • @rational_lib@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    But when he attempted to pull Tsukahara from that same window, Riordan testified, “I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire.”

    Remember that the right wing media rushed to blame this on speeding and intoxication without mentioning that they were still alive and able to move when the vehicle was on fire. They were cooked alive inside, foreseeably and preventably, and that was covered up in a way that maximized the shame the victims’ families felt. Deplorable.

    • lori
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      121 month ago

      The Cybertruck fans have basically just decided that because one of them was a drunk driver they don’t need to think about the rest of it and it’s fine that they died.

  • @Jikiya@lemmy.world
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    71 month ago

    Finding hard to summon sympathy for someone that would still buy a Tesla after the far right lurch from the owner. I feel terrible for myself, as I should care that 3 young lives have ended, but can’t help but think they were likely enemies of a democratic US.

  • @MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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    1001 month ago

    There are cameras inside the car, it self drives… imagine if it used AI to decide if the driver was Jewish. Or queer. Or just a particular individual who might be thrown out a window were they in Russia. And it steered itself into a wall and burst into flames, destroying any internal telemetry that might tell the story.

    The technology is there. The regulatory agencies that might investigate are gutted. There is nothing but the integrity of a few programmers standing in the way. Programmers whose livelihoods and perhaps admission to the US are at stake.

    That feels awfully thin.

    There’s a fucking conspiracy theory for the nutters.

    • Chozo
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      31 month ago

      I don’t think that a lot of the people who would be likely targets for such an attack are the same people who would be buying Teslas in the first place.

      • @MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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        41 month ago

        They might well already have Teslas. They are far more likely to drive them (I think) than the good old boys out in the country.

    • Admiral Patrick
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      1 month ago

      imagine if it used AI to decide if the driver was Jewish. Or queer. Or just a particular individual who might be thrown out a window were they in Russia. And it steered itself into a wall and burst into flames, destroying any internal telemetry that might tell the story.

      That’s basically how the plot of Upload kicks off, and when I realized “holy crap, that’s totally possible”.

      • @upandup@sh.itjust.works
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        231 month ago

        You’re the only other person I have ever heard mention that they had watched that show. I liked it. I thought it was decent, but nobody else seemed to.

        • @criticon@lemmy.ca
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          31 month ago

          Another good one with a related theme of technology morality is Made For Love, I think it’s from Max

          • @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 month ago

            Yes, now Made for Love was great. Way better than Upload imo.

            Damn, I really forgot that show existed until just now…

        • Admiral Patrick
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          1 month ago

          Oh, I think it’s great. Can’t wait till season 4 drops. Definitely an underrated show especially if you like near future, corporate dystopia black comedies. There’s also the meta humor that it runs on Amazon Prime Video.

            • Admiral Patrick
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              1 month ago

              AFAIK, it’s not canceled. It just goes forever between 10-episode seasons that always end on a cliffhanger.

              Edit: Ah, the upcoming fourth season is the final one.

              • @thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works
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                71 month ago

                Four seasons is a pretty good run for this type of show, IMO; at least if it’s as well planned and thought out as The Good Place (not to dissimilar concept) was!

                I think I’m also only around ~2 seasons in, as I cancelled Prime a while back… might have to fly the black flag and catch up on S03!

        • Admiral Patrick
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          41 month ago

          I don’t even recall how I heard of it, lol, but it’s really good. Definitely one of those hidden gems in the sea of crap-quality streaming shows.

          • @Upgrayedd1776@lemmy.world
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            21 month ago

            If you can get over the weird color saturation thing, it wasnt good enough for me to have that bizarre super bright reds and pinks

      • @afronaut@lemmy.cafe
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        -21 month ago

        Very underrated film. I saw it in theaters and thought everyone was gonna go crazy for it then barely heard anyone talk about it.

    • Schadrach
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      21 month ago

      There are cameras inside the car, it self drives… imagine if it used AI to decide if the driver was Jewish. Or queer.

      How would a camera determine if you are queer?

      Also, I am just imagining the piles of blackmail material Tesla has on it’s customers.

      • @MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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        11 month ago

        AI. I didn’t say it would do a good job, lol. It’s a conspiracy theory. It doesn’t have to make sense, it just needs to be barely plausible.

    • @Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Well, the government organization that allowed consumers to complain, get the money back along with a settlement, and have the product recalled, was recently “fed into a wood chipper” by the guy who makes the cybertrucks.

    • @danc4498@lemmy.world
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      31 month ago

      Are they saying the doors were not damaged and still didn’t open? I could see the doors being damaged and resulting in them not opening. I’m sure that’s common.

      • lori
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        21 month ago

        If the Cybertruck gets water into the door (y’know, like from rain) it’s pretty common for the doors to also just open themselves whenever the fuck.

        It’s amazing what’s common with these trucks, I recommend everyone read the Cybertruck Owners Forum.

      • @Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        141 month ago

        The doors use a push button mechanism to open. There’s no handle, no place to grip, nothing. You tap a button, that opens the door. Meaning if the internal electronics have been messed up, congratulations, that door isn’t opening.

          • @Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            51 month ago

            Someone outside of the vehicle cannot access this cord. Unconscious or disoriented passengers are fucked.

            • Schadrach
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              11 month ago

              Someone outside of the vehicle should be either calling an ambulance or grabbing the jaws of life and telling the door it doesn’t have a choice in the matter.

              • @Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                21 month ago

                The jaws of life cannot be used if the vehicle is actively on fire.

                Passengers dying because of the vehicle’s aesthetic features is another square on the Tesla bingo card and another example of the insanity that this country has fallen into.

  • TomMasz
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    491 month ago

    Who did Musk bribe to allow this ugly fucking deathtrap on the road?

        • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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          31 month ago

          Resistant

          There is no guarantee to stop even a small caliber

          Small caliber at high velocity would go straight through

          You could say a thick metal wall is small caliber bullet proof because no matter what velocity, the small chunk of metal is never passing through a few decimeters of solid metal.

          Small caliber piercing round at high velocity, straight through the stainless steel door.

          Slap some plastic on that bad boy

          You’d really trust that as a bullet shield?

          Normal 9mm across the street. Probably going through

            • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Yeah, I watched one from official Tesla youtube where the guy shot it with a bunch of stuff.

              It did stop the 9mm with the rounds they chose

              The buck shot pierced the door and cracked the window because it was rolled down.

              Buck shot is smaller caliber with higher velocity.

              I need to find a video of someone trying to get a 9mm bullet to go through it rather than basically a paid advertisement.

              • @NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                This one is recent and it does various calibers / velocities

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufoLITv26R4

                it did stop a subsonic and supersonic 9mm. The supersonic one was pretty close to going through though, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he did a dozen or so if one would have.

                The shots that ripped the metal instead of piercing through it were pretty wild.

            • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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              21 month ago

              Yep small caliber proof for sure

              My favorite part of decimeters is 1 inch is 1/4 decimeters. 3 decimeters is foot.

              So if it’s like 8 inches. I can just say 2 decimeters

              From there you can say 20 centimeters or .2 meters

              If something is 12ft it’s 36 decimeters or 3.6 meters

              There’s no easy way to turn 8 inches into centimeters other than knowing that 1 inch is about 2.5 centimeters or just estimating in centimeters to begin with.

              You could say 8 inches is 2/3 of a foot. 3ft to a meter. So 1 ft is .30 meters. Then it’s 2/3 of a foot, so .30×2/3=.2.

              Decimeters are the missing link for Americans to convert

              Yards to meters is 1

              Feet to meters is 3

              Inches to decimeters is 4

              Things like a 36 inch doorway, 3 feet, would be 9 decimeters or .9 meters

              Common measurements of inches:

              12 - 4 Decimeters

              18 - 4.5 Decimeters

              24 - 8 Decimeters

              30 - 9.5 Decimeters

              What they would use otherwise would be

              .4 meters

              .45 meters

              .8 meters

              .95 meters

              Saying the standard doorway is 9 Decimeters is way better than saying .9 meters.

              If you rounded to 1 meter. You’re adding 3 1/3 inches. Which is a 10% increase.

              A decimeter tape measure would be nice.

      • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        41 month ago

        The glass is not bullet resistant. The doors barely qualify, if they don’t have to stand up to an actual firefight.

  • Pyr
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    371 month ago

    Why are these cars even allowed to be purchased? Does America not have road safety standards? Can anyone just make a car and as long as it has headlights and seatbelts sell it to people?

    • @BossDj@lemm.ee
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      71 month ago

      Were still kinda being held together by pre-1970s protections, but those are slowly going away, too

    • Sixty
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      211 month ago

      I thought it obvious that law means nothing in the USA unless you’re poor now.

      • @frezik@midwest.social
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        41 month ago

        When it comes to people inside the car, they’re incredibly good. There are lots of cars you can buy in Europe and Japan that wouldn’t even try meeting US safety standards.

        That is, until some jackass decided on putting too many gizmos in a car without thinking about how you open the door while the battery is on fire. And is currently dismantling the parts of government that tell you not to do that.

        Those standards also don’t do much for people outside the car. Beyond Tesla, that’s been the real tragedy of US safety standards over the past few years.

        • @MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          41 month ago

          Even inside the car isn’t great, just look at allowing electronic door latches, and giant touchscreens that distract you while driving.

    • lori
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      11 month ago

      Well we have some standards …like they forced Musk to put mirrors on the Cybertruck, because Elon wanted to make it without mirrors and just use cameras.

    • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      41 month ago

      Our safety agency actually rejected the headlights that turn off around other cars, in favor of LED lights that blind the fuck out of everyone no matter what setting you use.

      That tells you everything you need to know about American “safety”.

    • @Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      111 month ago

      Regulatory capture. For the most part, Automakers can determine if their vehicle is safe, as long as they have certain hardware requirements (Like airbags, backup cameras, and a roof that can support the weight of the vehicle.) Heck, I remember some Tesla engineer saying that the mirrors are only on the truck because they couldn’t get the legislation mandating them removed in time to replace them with cameras.

    • @real_squids@sopuli.xyz
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      141 month ago

      It got 5 NHTSA stars for driver safety, 4 for passenger, anyone caught outside of it are acceptable casualties. And as far as I know the manufacturer can self-certify.

    • @Aganim@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      While you are burning alive, please take the time to appreciate the fact that the Cybertruck has a 5-star NHTSA crash rating.