The New York Times created “Elon Musk’s Crash Course.” Episode 1 aired on May 2022. (Source: FX)

Has Tesla Gotten Away with Lack of Oversight Over One of Its Car Crashes?

In an article from latimes.com, we found an eye-opening story about The New York Times documentary concerning the lack of safety in the cars made by Tesla and Elon Musk. When we say “eye-opening,” we mean exactly that.

If you own a Tesla, or a loved one does, or you’re thinking about buying one, or you share public roads with Tesla cars, you might want to watch the new documentary, “Elon Musk’s Crash Course.”

Premiering Friday on FX and Hulu, the 75-minute fright show spotlights the persistent dangers of Tesla’s automated driving technologies, the company’s poor safety culture, Musk’s “P.T. Barnum-style” marketing hype, and the lame safety regulators.

“Solidly reported and dead-accurate (I’ve covered the company since 2016 and can attest to its veracity), the project, part of the ongoing ‘New York Times Presents’ series, may well become a historic artifact of the what-the-hell-were-they-thinking variety,” LA Times writer Russ Mitchell writes.

In question is the horrible wreck of a Tesla in Florida. Not once but twice.

It is the story of Joshua Brown, a rabid Tesla fan and derring-do techno-geek beheaded when his Autopilot-engaged Tesla drove itself at full speed on a Florida highway underneath the trailer of a semi-truck in 2016.

Now comes information that Tesla tracks every one of its cars, outside of any government oversight. Whatever lessons were learned at Tesla did not prevent an almost identical fatal crash, also in Florida, three years later. An unknown number of Autopilot-related crashes have occurred since—unknown to anyone but Tesla,

Mitchell pulled a couple of points from the documentary to highlight:

  1. Tesla’s Autopilot feature did not receive adequate testing, ex-employees allege.
  2. Fully autonomous Teslas are more science-fiction than reality
  3. Musk’s fans don’t hold back. Even on camera
  4. Regulatory failures are part of the problem

So with claims of a lack of real testing and reporting of the real problems with products already on the road, Mitchell picked a great subject at the right time for his piece. It is filled with information that may change minds about the safety of buying Tesla cars.

read more at latimes.com