A Tesla Model 3 owner and his passenger have survived a major collision relatively unscathed after their electric car collided with a stationary vehicle at 60mph.
He told the chat forum: “Everyone from the paramedics to the tow truck driver said that people don’t usually walk away from this”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Had this been a regular ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle I would be dead or in a lot worse condition,” he said.
The owner said he would provide more details after settling his insurance claim, but revealed that the passenger’s arm hit the car’s large touchscreen and “shattered it” during the crash.
This prevented him from opening the car’s glovebox, which contained details of his ownership and insurance. The passenger also sustained a “pretty big cut on her arm” from the cracked screen.
The crash prompted a response on Twitter from Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, who said the company would add a software feature that automatically opens the glovebox after a crash.
Musk also said that Tesla would consider adding a “thin plastic sheet to the front or back of the screen” to prevent it from shattering.
According to Teslarati, the driver has “already put in another reservation for the electric car”.