When I hear stories like this I'm reminded of my own similar experience in the 90s.<p>I was the passenger in a light truck (late 80s Toyota) with my friend driving in moderate freeway traffic. At the time we were moving around 30mph. I had a clear view of the pedals as the cabin was relatively sparse.<p>He suddenly accelerates then starts pumping the accelerator. The motion surprised me which caused me to look at his foot pumping the accelerator. I could hear the engine revving and feel the car lurch each time while also thinking we're going to hit the car in front of us if he doesn't stop.<p>After the 4th or 5th pump, his foot hits the brake. Just inches from the car in front of us, he turns to me and said, "The brake was stuck and wasn't working." I told him that he was actually stomping on the accelerator pedal the whole time.<p>He didn't believe me.
> Tesla China, for its part, has denied the driver’s claims that the vehicle’s brakes were unresponsive during the incident. According to the electric vehicle maker, data from the ill-fated Model Y showed that the vehicle’s accelerator pedal was depressed deeply for an extended period of time, even reaching 100% at one point. Tesla China also noted that the driver did not press the brakes during the incident.<p><a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-fatal-model-y-crash-china-response/" rel="nofollow">https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-fatal-model-y-crash-china-re...</a>
The video is terrifying, I never understood why cars are able to go so much over the speed limit instead of being hardware limited to ~150kph in the first place<p>Having 500+ hp in a software limited car than can all of a sudden decide to go pedal to the metal is pure insanity
The video is bizarre: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3lTm3sMHZNE" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3lTm3sMHZNE</a><p>It could have been a human error, but it seems that he did use the brake right before the car accelerated, so if he did mix up pedals, it was after he successfully slowed down to park. On the hand, regen braking can slow the car enough that you have to use the brake much less. This can also explain the stop lights turning on, iirc a full release of acceleration does that almost certainly. It is harder to believe that he was pushing the wrong pedal for that long.<p>If it is a pedal mixup, it could have happened with automatic transmission, except rate of acceleration us much slower. If so, we should have seen a similar cases when it took this long for a driver to notice they pressed the wrong pedal.
$TSLAQ will control the conversation here but I'll put the official response, according to Chinese media, anyway -<p><pre><code> In response to the incident, Tesla officially responded
It can be seen from the existing accident video that the brake lights have not been lit for a long time during the high-speed
driving of the vehicle. This is consistent with the situation reflected in the background data:
1) The vehicle switch has been deeply pressed for a long time, and once maintained 100%;
2) There is no action to step on the brake throughout the process;
3) During driving, the driver briefly presses the P gear button four times, and then quickly releases it, and the brake light also quickly turns on and off.
</code></pre>
The 13 cameras with video of the incident was the actual scary thing here, you can at least buy floor mats that don't get stuck to control the accident part of the story.
I am not trying to create a conspiracy theory here, but how difficult would it be to 1) sabotage an EV like Tesla to behave this way, and 2) for that sabotage to not be detected via monitoring how the vehicle does, and 3) could it or would it need to be done through physical alteration and/or software?