Modern Vespa

I won't be following any Tesla's at night. The first time it ever happened to me would be the last time.
6:20

I think I heard that some Jeep Cherokee's were doing that too. Not sure of the circumstances when but that they were slamming the brakes on for no reason. I used to LOVE cars, they were a big hobby of mine. No more. Just basically computers on wheels. Great when they work but not so much when they don't. Yep, I'm getting old...

Bob

It's not an EV thing per se, it's any higher end vehicle with the feature. But I guess mentioning Tesla is more click-baity...

But if you were, like every other vehicle, you'd leave enough distance to safely stop should an emergency arise.

Tesla pushes the limits of driver aides more than others. Some would say recklessly

This is the first I've heard of this, so I plead not guilty.

Just a vague comment. I don't ride at night. More likely to encounter a killer drunk at night.

Yup. And it makes their stuff crazy expensive to fix and more expensive to insure.

When my mother needs a new windshield in her fancy car with lane assist and all that added tech it costs $1600 CAD to replace versus $400 CAD for my truck. Hers has sensors to replace and cameras built in or something. Mine just has glass and a sticker.

Similar situation with our mirrors, etc. It all seems to cost 4x more than my old truck.

A colleague of mine with a VW ID4 also issued big problems with sudden and unexpected braking when in auto-assistance mode.

On the motorway when there is an exit sometimes there is a sign on the exit lane saying 70 kph or 50kph with an arrow underneath making clear that limit is meant for cars on the exit.

But that VW does not recognize these arrows and only sees the speed limit. So he was driving like 120kph not taking the exit and all of a sudden the car smashed the brakes.

That happaned to him a few times and is a scaring experience. So he went to his dealer to ask them to make clear how he could make sure all these assistance features are switched off.

Actually, it's not just high end cars, either. I have a 2023 Nissan Kicks (one of their least expensive cars) that has automatic emergency braking.
In the Kicks, it's camera, not radar, based, and the camera is in front of the rear view mirror looking forward.
There's a warning in the owner's manual about overpasses triggering it "under certain conditions".
Well, I've owned the vehicle for 6 months now without a glitch, and traveled one particular route probably 100 times without a thought.
Two days ago, it was particularly bright and sunny and, as I passed under the overpass, doing 55 mph with my cruise control engaged, my Kicks slammed on the brakes hard enough to trigger the antilock and a big red triangle flashed on my forward instrument screen. It only lasted a fraction of a second (as I passed through the shadow), but it freaked me out. Fortunately, traffic was well spaced behind me, so no harm done.
So now, I'm wary.

I highly recommend reading Ludicrous by Edward Niedermeyer if you'd like an insight into the way that Tesla tend to release technology before it's fully proven.

Yep new cars are appliances now, no soul.

My Prius was glitching out, would barely move at green lights, then finally engage after struggling for the first couple hundred yards, thought the transmission was going out, error codes galore, lucky I didn't get rear ended. After milking it home went on youtube and found out it needed a reset of the electronic hybrid system, unplugged the negative cable on the regular battery for few minutes and all was well, just like rebooting a laptop.

Some Mercedes need an expensive electronic reset and calibration and a physical 4 wheel alignment after a windshield replacement.
Man do a yearn for a simpler place in time.

I could talk for days about this.

Stick with the old stuff and take really good care of it.

Like cars in Cuba.

I was really honestly looking for something else, I promise, but I had to drop this in here because Tesla.

Self-Driving Tesla Regurgitates Pedestrian To Feed Offspring



SAN JOSE, CA—As part of an effort to nurture and raise its young, a self-driving Tesla regurgitated a pedestrian carcass to feed its offspring, sources confirmed Wednesday. "Wow, there's something so beautiful about watching a mother Tesla feed its children by vomiting up the half-digested remains of a pedestrian," said onlooker Becca Heinrich, explaining that she could tell young Teslas were hungry by the way they scarfed down the partially dissolved bones and viscera of the pedestrian killed at a nearby intersection. "It's obvious how much it loves them when you consider how many times it drives away to get more pedestrian for them to devour. I don't want to get too close, though, because if it smells me on the young brood, it might reject and kill the developing electric vehicles." At press time, the self-driving Tesla was reportedly pushing its offspring out into the middle of a busy school crosswalk so they could learn to drive.

I would highly recommend looking more deeply into Mr. Niedermeyer.
I started reading his original blog as electric cars came on to my radar for my business purposes- I was driving over 50K miles a year and the concept was intriguing.

His first big project was entitled "Tesladeathwatch". I thought he was on to something and followed him among others, very closely.

As I researched the idea more, over the course of 10 years, I realized he is totally undependable. He makes deliberate distortions in his article for reasons one can only guess.

For the record, I purchased an EV in March 2021. Best car I ever had, and I went through a lot of cars, mostly Audis.

I've also been on the Full Self Driving beta for over 2 years. I would recommend you keep the same prudent distance behind a Tesla as any other car-but I think you'd be better served assuming all car drivers may try to kill you and never depend on them to do the right thing.

I stay away from EV's on the road in the same way that I avoid elderly ladies in Japanese cars.

I'd also argue that every Journalist has an agenda.

You forgot trucks/trailers with shitty loads in them.

Yeah a very good point.

Nothing like being faced with a half brick bouncing towards you.

Bill, good point on treating EVs like elderly ladies-

As to agendas, I'm of the opinion that a journalist's agenda should either be put aside in the act of reporting, or disclosed with each article to prevent confusion as to whether one is reading news or editorial article, or, heaven forfend, an advertisement.

A brilliant observation.

There's only one thing worse and that, an Actor endorsing a product.

David Beckham is an Advertising Whore.

Amongst other things

LOL. Objective news is SOOOO 1970's. We haven't anything BUT editorials since 1992. Show me the latest news from whatever source you choose, I'll show you the slant.

This is Lester Holt of the NBC Nightly News, "Before you run with or tweet that headline, let me explain a bit," he said. "The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in."

THAT is the situation in 2023.

I don't think either accuracy or fairness requires that contrasting points of view should always receive equal weight when reported. If one view is fact based and well documented while another is not well supported and possibly falsified - let accuracy win out. And that situation often does reflects the world we live in at present.

Even when owners are confronted with the truth or the repeated failures of the product they drive they will often deflect it or dismiss it while using the "what about" protocol or drag up an exception to the rule.

It's human nature but it's also a Cult. A carefully chosen product or a particular model is a projection of you so to admit that you may have made a mistake takes balls, so most people will just plough on regardless no matter how many recalls take place.

I don't know about you but I want to be fully connected to what I'm riding or driving so if you continue to remove the control from the driver you may as well just give and get a Taxi.

My general test for news vs editorial-

If I strongly disagree, it's editorial.

If I strongly agree, it's editorial.

Much of everything else doesn't really need me to worry about it.

You all remember the Ford Pinto ? Rather than implement an $11.00 Dollar modification at the point of manufacture they actually felt it would be better to release the car when they knew the back end would deform under impact and set the occupants alight.

They did the numbers and felt it would be cheaper to pay out to injured parties rather than fix the car at source.

Now I'm not suggesting that manufacturers are all doing a Cost Data Analyst but it's possible.

I believe that the Chevrolet Corvair used to lift at the front at speed at also. Scary shit.

I might now own an EV - but even if I eventually owned one with 'assist' features, I'd be sure to turn them off. I don't even like cruise control.

Give Cobalt Red by Siddarth Kara before you put the deposit down.