Tesla Model 3 Rollover Mirrors Elon Musk's Weekend

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Morning! How was your weekend? Good? Hope so. I caught up on some sleep after a week-long bout of insomnia, and many of you probably enjoyed backyard barbecues and romantic encounters and car shows under the hot July sun.

Consider yourself lucky. You could have had a weekend like the driver of this spankin’ new Tesla Model 3 — or the man behind the car’s badge.

First, the story behind these photos, which were shared with the Tesla Motors subreddit by user StapleGun. The user’s wife was behind the wheel of the three-month-old Model 3 at the time of the accident. In his words:

She was traveling on the freeway at approximately 70mph in the left lane. The car collided with a second vehicle in the middle lane. The front driver side of the Model 3 then hit the cement median with enough force to shear the front wheel off. Then the slide sideways and started rolling. A witness said the car rolled “several times” before finally settling upside down. The other car also hit the median, though much less violently, and we believe the driver was uninjured.

Several good people immediately stopped and helped her. Surprisingly the drivers side window rolled down (actually up) and the door was able to be opened with the normal button (as opposed to the emergency release). She initially thought she was fine but was convinced to head to the hospital in an ambulance as a precaution. Turns out that was a good idea because there was a compression fracture in one of her vertebrae. They released her after a few hours and she is recovering well. There was also several bruises, a small friction burn from the airbags, and general soreness the day after.

We’re glad to hear the driver’s 70 mph rollover was something she was able to walk away from. As the user states — and as the pictures show — the car’s structure remained intact, with all airbags functional and no cabin intrusion. Good stuff. (See the full photo set here.)

The Model 3 hasn’t yet undergone comprehensive crash testing, so this is a good, real-world look at how the vehicle holds up when you need it to. As you can imagine, Fred was ecstatic.

But while the owners of this Model 3 look forward to their next vehicle (another Model 3), the man tasked with cranking out these vehicles at an ever greater clip took time out from a hectic production schedule to call one of the Thailand cave rescuers a pedophile. Only natural, some of his sycophantic followers stated on Twitter. After all, the other guy said he didn’t like Elon’s experimental boy submarine. What else was he to do except accuse the man of sex crimes on social media? It’s 2018.

No, we’re not standing in a urine-soaked playground here, but it’s definitely a childish pissing match — one that just turned bizarre and libelous. The Washington Post wrote a masterfully succinct take on the head-scratching affair.

What was Musk thinking? What was going on in his immediate environs this weekend? And what does this bizarre accusation, seemingly made out of spite, do for his company’s reputation and investors’ faith in it? Nothing good, that’s for sure. Musk has since deleted the accusatory tweets, in which he said he was willing to bet money on British caver Vernon Unsworth’s status as a predatory child abuser. A man he admits he’s never met. A cave expert who said Musk’s cave submarine would be unsuitable for the rescue of 12 trapped Thai boys.

According to The Guardian, Unsworth was “astonished and very angry” after reading Musk’s tweets, and is considering taking legal action.

The weekend got off to a rocky start for Musk, after reports arose that the Tesla CEO was a major Republican donor. Musk denied being a top GOP donor, or ever donating to a Super PAC, claiming he makes small donations to both major political parties as a way of maintaining dialogue. In today’s current political climate, these reports caused quite a hubbub.

But we sure weren’t talking about the GOP or political donations yesterday. Talk about changing the channel. As of publishing time, Musk has not issued (or tweeted) an apology or explanation for his “pedo” tweets.

[Images: Imgur, via Reddit]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Jul 16, 2018

    I will reserve judgment until JohnTaurus throws his 20 to 50 individual comments in on this.

  • DeadWeight DeadWeight on Jul 17, 2018

    "[Carroll Prescott] made quite a reputation for himself on AutoBlog under the name Laser. Makes Norm’s Honda hatred look mild. I honestly thought he was a teenager, given the maturity of his posts." Holy sh*t! Not only does JohnTaurus spend approximately 9.78 hours per day/night on TTAC, but he manages to know other users by spending additional, massive amounts of time on other websites such as Autoblog, as well!!! I nominate JohnTaurus for Post Master General of the Internet!

    • See 1 previous
    • Someone has an unhealthy fixation. John, you might want to get a restraining order this one is getting out of hand. Yikes stripes.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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