Storm Denis revealed something about the Tesla autopilot feature in the Model X vehicles. It can help save lives! Amazingly, two Tesla Model X’s were traveling down the same road in opposite directions when a 400-year-old oak tree was taken down by the storm and landed on both cars.
Each vehicle had families inside and had the Tesla autopilot enabled at the time, and both cars emergency braking system kicked in.
Laurence Sanderson recounts the accident:
We were driving along and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the tree coming down. The car was on Autopilot and the emergency braking kicked in. It was chaos with smoke coming from the car and people shouting to get out. People from other cars came to help get the kids out. It was an amazing response. Another second and we would have been crushed, as I wouldn’t have been able to react in time. The car undoubtedly saved our lives. We would have been killed without it.
The car traveling towards the Sanderson’s was driven by Josh Whitelock, who had his girlfriend and her family in the car;
I was on Autopilot driving home when I saw a flash from the power line which lit up the tree as it fell. We stopped suddenly. There was a loud crack and then the sound of metal on metal. I was expecting to turn around and see my girlfriend and her mother impaled by branches but incredibly that wasn’t the case.
Technology is moving very quickly and this proves that having computers help us avoid accidents can be a great thing. As humans, we aren’t entirely aware of our surroundings and often times do not react to circumstances as quickly as we would like.
Mr. Sanderson went on, to sum up, his experience:
In an amazing one in a million chance, another Tesla Model X car was also hit on the other side of the tree. The police have told me that all three are fine, so eight lives have quite literally been saved due to this amazing car. “My wife thought she was going to die when she saw the tree fall. I can’t believe we’re all still alive. Elon Musk has done us proud.
This is indeed a win-win for Tesla and Elon Musk. His passion for continuous improvement and wonder of what is possible just saved 2 families. Talk about good advertising!
