Let's talk about that haywire Tesla that killed people...

This was something that Louis Rossmann had covered, and though I feel he says much of what I believe to be the case, I still want to make my own blog post about it.

Something seems off to me about that Tesla that went speeding on its own & killed multiple people when its driver was trying to park. I really don't want to sound like an annoying Tesla fanboy, more especially as I am not a fan of the company at all & have many reservations about how it operates, as well as its CEO... But one thing is undeniable about this: something that shouldn't have happened, has happened, and some unusual circumstances caused it to happen.

So, I'd like to theorize about it. But first, lets set some facts straight.

1. The driver was not DUI.

2. The driver was just trying to park.

3. The location this occurred in appears to be China. (indicated by CCTV footage having Chinese date/time watermarks)

4. The driver had no intention to injure anyone.

5. This is (more than likely) not a result of Tesla's Autopilot feature.

Now, watching the video that had went viral, here's my two takes on the possibilities...

1. The movements are obviously not unintentional, which suggests that the car was hacked - unfortunately Tesla happens to offer the ability to drive the car from a mobile app, which although the app only will let the car go 5mph, what's to say that the car won't ignore an external signal telling it to go beyond that?

Of course, not to say that I think the responsibility should be solely on whoever hacked the car, I think Tesla still takes major responsibility for the fact that their car's automatic features cannot be manually mechanically overridden easily in an emergency & if this theory is the case, for the security hole(s) in their software that allowed it.

Oh... not to mention, the location this happened in appears to be China. So I'm going to put my political tinfoil hat on for a second & say: There's also the possible chance that they said/done something that China's government didn't like & they decided to attempt to kill them by hacking their car, as the Chinese gov has previously attacked people in response to resent from their citizens.

You might be inclined to say that is BS & is far-fetched... But this has actually happened to Michael Hastings, a WikiLeaks journalist that was in the US. Just a few hours before he was killed in a car accident, he had contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson saying that he was being investigated by the FBI. Said car accident was his Mercedes C250 coupe slamming into a tree at full speed... how? It's largely believed that the CIA had hacked his car to be stuck at full-throttle.

This was no mistake, in no way was it a mere accident. They did it on-purpose, as he was vocal critic of the Obama administration, the Democratic Party, and surveillance state - notably, in the middle of the 2013 DoJ investigations of reporters. The day before the crash occurred, Hastings said that he was "onto a big story", that he needed to "go off the radar", and that the FBI might interview them. LA Weekly also later reported that he was preparing new reports on the CIA not long after this.

In the following years, WikiLeaks published Vault 7, reporting that as of October 2014 the CIA had been looking at infecting the systems of modern automobiles - with no specification as to what they could do with such power, but such power would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations. Although this is after Michael's assassination, it does show that the CIA would absolutely want such a level of power - furthermore, it's very well possible they already had such power, and only took to internal discussion of it after the death of Michael Hastings, just in case the documents were leaked so that less people would be likely to tie the CIA or FBI to his death.

Of course, once again, we can't confirm if this is the case with the aforementioned Tesla without knowing if they have indeed did something that could've pissed them off. But it's still a theory of mine nonetheless.

2. The driver may have got the pedal stuck under a floor mat, or something in the driver's side footwell may have got the pedal stuck full-throttle - this has happened in many cars in the past already, often as a result of somebody being a fool & just plopping the mats down lazily when cleaning without checking if the floor mat is below the pedals. 

Though I have never been inside a Tesla myself, I've had experience with multiple brands of cars, some of which happen to have poor carpeting that one of the pedals could get stuck in if stomped on hard enough - this could also potentially be the case, say, if the driver initially panicked after accidentally pressing the gas pedal & only stomped on it harder, resulting in it getting stuck in the carpeting/under a floor mat.

Of course though, if the carpeting/floor mats were involved or not would have to be confirmed by those that attended to the accident.

All things considered: This incident does not change my opinion of Tesla, its products, or its current CEO. But I strongly believe this was not just a unusual natural occurrence due to a electronic (software/hardware) quirk - something has to have happened for this to occur in the first place. Toyota has had such faults with ECUs going nuts & sending the engine full-throttle, as well as top-hinged pedals being stuck under floor mats that shift forwards with time when mashed down hard enough - which could be the very same thing that occurred in the aforementioned Tesla, but given how expensive these cars are, I'd expect them to not overlook such a potential safety issue. Unless, of course, the floor mats (if any were in-place in the Tesla) were aftermarket.

Will I ever buy a Tesla, or any EV? If one ever becomes a viable option for me, I might. I love the instant response of electric motors, the higher efficiency, and simpler design that has less moving parts. I will, however, never buy a Tesla specifically, & probably will never own one unless someone just gives me one for free - right now, I have an eye on Rivian & hope they become a successful player in the market with some smaller vehicles. Even then, I'm strongly considering just converting an existing car into an EV myself - essentially building my own car from the ground-up, so I can get a traditional vehicle that isn't internet-connected in any possible way.

But for now, I think I'll just keep aiming for a 2017 Honda Accord with a V6 - those models get alright fuel economy & look like plain everyday normie cars, but manage 0-60 in under 6 seconds & can outpace many older sports cars.