this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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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".

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Fuck drunk drivers. Just glad she didn't kill anyone else.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Bummer Mitch McConnell wasn't in the trunk.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Oh, I didn’t know he went by his middle name

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Of course she was. Putting your car into reverse and letting it back fully into a pond without braking when you actually meant to put it in drive is not something an unimpaired driver does.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Eh, not defending a drunk driver but there's more to this:

  • the Tesla gear interface is a touchscreen where there's no "feel" for which gear you've selected if you fatfinger it.
  • many folks, sober or drunk, when they get the car moving in an unexpected way reflexively stamp down on the pedal their foot is currently on. This could happen to you. You are not immune.

So if you are in the wrong gear, then panic stomp the pedal, you can absolutely find yourself speeding in the wrong direction.

[–] prole 6 points 5 months ago

the Tesla gear interface is a touchscreen

Because of course it is... Jesus fucking Christ, of all the things to remove all tactile feedback from...

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Maybe the machine knew where she was going.

For those that don't know where they're going:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOW_kPzY_JY

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The gear selection method in those is non-intuitive. Doesn't alter your conclusions, just an unfortunate and unsafe design choice.

Edit: replaced wrong words

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Adrenaline does weird things to your brain, when controlling a car. When startled, we default to getting low and stable. That's good when standing, however, it putting your feet flat on the ground is extremely bad when in the driver's seat.

I've actually witnessed this in action. A slip resulted in 2 cars written off, 1 pushed through several gardens. I can easily see someone doing something similar, with a Tesla. Alcohol would just amplify the effect.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Not just drunk, 3x the limit drunk.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Which is probably like 6 drinks in most states

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The only natural predator of billionaires is addiction.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

She was already in the "probably had it coming" category but this just makes it moreso.

Drinking and driving is the same as making a decision to maim or murder others, in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

A funny part of this whole thing that isn't discussed... Why isn't the "intelligent robot car" equipped with anything to stop you from doing any of the shit that led to this? Fucking snake oil bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You really don't want an automated system to have complete, unbreakable control over a scenario. You always want the option for a human to manually take control, because automation isn't foolproof, especially in edge cases.

However, they probably should have a breathalyzer that prevents you from taking manual control if you're so impaired that the automated system is probably safer than your drunken judgement.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You're missing the point, I didn't say full autonomous control. There are thousands of intermediate steps that could be involved - from escalating light/audio warnings, to auto lowering of the Windows or popping doors slightly to relieve pressure when significant water is sensed within car's internals for a sustained period of time to maybe even a temp limit of a vehicle speed/control while it's moving under a certain speed towards a sensed danger and not on a road/highway.

The bigger point is that musk snake oil cars are sold with the vapor of "smart" and this did nothing smart to help save this woman's life, in fact it sealed her into her avoidable death due to poor design and profound lack of several basic and easy to implement potential "smart" features that could have attempted to warn or intervene.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

You're absolutely correct.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How can you be a billionaire CEO and don't have a driver? The CEO of a company I used to work for, cannot contractually drive by itself and had a couple of drivers 24/7 working for him, and he didn't even was a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Some people like to drive, some people hate driving.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I race, but you people commute and that's insane.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to get stuck in traffic or behind someone going 5 under when you regularly go 155+mph through turns?

He is probably saving himself the headache of felonious speeding tickets and us from his road rage.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I would prefer driving in most situation regardless I'm a CEO or not. Probably that's why I'm not a CEO.....

That said, she could well hire a driver service for that, a taxi or even just call a Uber.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

...or just buy Uber...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago

Oh no. Next!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

One less billionaire in the world is a good thing no matter the cause.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago

Err... her kids are just going to inherit that wealth.

This solves nothing and you shouldn't think it does.

The only way to get rid of the ruling class is to redistribute their wealth. Any other suggestion is just a distraction for useful idiots.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (11 children)

What about a death from a drunk driver is an “unfortunate accident?” It’s not an accident, first of all, because you have to intentionally choose to break the law and operate heavy machinery while blitzed. Second of all it’s not unfortunate it’s fucking preventable because you have to intentionally choose to the break the law and operate heavy machinery while sloshed. I’d even go so far as to say it was fortunate because the drunk driver killed themself instead of someone else which a huge consequence that has led to it being against the law to operate heavy machinery while fucking hammered.

“Gee we’re sorry this person did the thing we tell you not to do from before you start driving it’s so unfortunate they made an intentional choice to endanger the life of anyone around them including themself this very bad decision we tell you not to make was clearly an accident”

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[–] nkat2112 12 points 5 months ago

I'm reminded of a submarine, but I'm not sure why.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

I continue to be happy for her

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

One down...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Memento mori.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

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...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 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.

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