Wham Baam Teslacam is a video series of Tesla accidents, incidents, and moments captured by Tesla owners and submitted. In their latest video, Max, the owner of a Tesla Model 3, had a horrifying ordeal with a semi. The fact that he survived this is a reflection of just how safe Tesla vehicles truly are. Sadly for Max, he’d only had his new Tesla just for a few weeks.
Max was driving down the highway in Kentucky with Autopilot enabled. While driving past a semi-truck, the driver of the truck decided that right then was a great time to switch lanes. Clearly, the driver of the semi didn’t check his blind spots.
The truck clipped the Model 3, which Autopilot tried to save. The reason why it failed was due to the speed of the truck–it was going too fast for the Model 3 to react in time. Autopilot also tried to steer out of the way of the truck. The semi won, however and instead of stopping, the driver continued on; pushing the Model 3 down the highway.
Finally, the driver of the semi kind of felt a bit of resistance as he was driving and he eventually stopped.
“The semi pushed Max for approximately half a mile before the driver finally stopped. Apparently, because he felt that there was something wrong. He felt some resistance against his truck but he never saw the Tesla. It wasn’t until the truck completely stopped that the driver finally saw people jumping out from in front of him. When he opened his door, he saw the Tesla for the first time.”
Fortunately, the owner of the Model 3 was unharmed but he did have to wait two months for the $20,000 in damages to be repaired. The wait was due to the parts delays. The truck driver was found responsible for the accident.
Seriously, how can you not notice that you’ve hit a car?