259
submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Shipping tycoon Angela Chao was drunk when she inadvertently reversed her Tesla into a pond and drowned last month at a Texas ranch, police say.

Blanco County Sheriff's Office found her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the state's legal limit.

The 50-year-old died after dinner on 10 February with a group of friends at the estate near Johnson City.

Her brother-in-law, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, cited the tragedy in his resignation speech.

On Wednesday, Blanco County Sheriff's Office released the findings of its investigation concluding Ms Chao's death was an "unfortunate accident".

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

She did everything wrong that she could have done. I'm going to assume even sober she never read the manual and learned where the manual door releases are.

I am kind of surprised that in 2024 vehicles don't have drop detect sensors but our Roombas do. For 99% of driving of you detect a dropoff, some sort of active brake should be applied...

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago

The false positives with that sort of system would be a major annoyance or dangerous. Steep driveways, rough transitions, potholes, railroad crossings, speed bumps, etc.

A Roomba operates on a nice flat floor and there is no reason it would have to traverse a surface transition of more than 3/8ths of an inch.

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Also the speeds are much higher so the brakes would never have time to have any effect. But it could maybe help if designed properly for low-speed maneuvers

[-] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

You hit a pot hole on the highway and now you’re stopping in the middle of it.

That’s why they don’t exist on vehicles, there’s lots of cases where they drop and still need to keep moving, while only a couple where it should stop, and in those cases it’s usually too late and won’t help.

[-] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world -1 points 8 months ago

Well no, obviously there's a maximum speed. Just like parking sensors have different distance warnings when driving versus parking.

And on a Tesla with so much vision, it should really know the topography.

[-] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

At speed is when you would need the active breaking…

And great now my car stopped in the parking lot from every speed bump…,

Can you provide a usecase where active breaking from a drop would actually help?

[-] theluckyone@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

I'd argue for drop that extends across the width of the lane, or both. Couple that with a system that can penetrate heavy rain, and two truck drivers might have lived through a washout of Interstate 88 in Central N a few years back. They didn't have much of a chance back then.

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 8 points 8 months ago

After almost freezing to death in Colorado winter with a broken down rental, I make it a point to know how to operate all the locks and ignition manually.

[-] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

It always amazes me how many people hop in a completely foreign car and just start driving. They'd rather try to learn where the windshield wiper control is while barelling down the highway at 80mph instead of while parked in the garage.

I've got pretty strong rental preferences so I'm sure they hate me when I ask for specific vehicles.

this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
259 points (97.4% liked)

News

23310 readers
3551 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS