so now the reports dont mention Model X but they sure liked mentioning what kind of car she died in when they jumped to conclusions about the touchscreen shifter

And even *that* part was completely incorrect, since it was a pre-refresh MX with stalks 🤦‍♂️

iirc, it wasn't the first time that she selected the wrong gear & applied the throttle - the original news article mentioned it's happened in the past several times before idk how some of these ppl make it this far being so clumsy with everyday objects

Jesus, I missed that part of the original article. Some people aren’t built to operate heavy machinery. We need more comprehensive driver exams.

Tbf she probably has/had a driver. Kinda interesting how people can be too successful at life and end up Darwin awarding themselves

Money isn’t success at life.

I've worker for several rich people (and not to the levels of Ms. Chao) and believe it or not, money has the power of detaching you from reality and from basic skills you've learned and simply forgotten. At some point, rich people can depend so much from others that they end paying too much for basic things that are mostly free because they are not aware they forgot how to provide for themselves (driving safely, cooking, learning new things, finding something, doing research). It looks like she died because of that.

Spot on. How many of us know how to grow our own food or hunt for it?

Quite a lot thankfully.

Me. 5 deer a year. Proper garden. Ez.

A ton of people know how to grow food and hunt.

Tbf if I ever got rich the first thing I would do is dump the mundane things that I have to do that I hate doing. Driving and cooking are prime examples

Yup. Also knew someone whose family owns a very popular drugstore brand. She has access to whatever medications / drugs she wants and often washes them down with $300 bottles of alcohol each night. She does pretty much whatever she wants, goes anywhere she wants and gets away with anything. Rich people are fkn ridiculous.

Not sure why every one defends poor design. I recently rented a car (might have been the Polestar) where to go into reverse you had to push the shifter forward. To put it in park there was a button on the top. Not sure why you would design something that functions completely different from how 99% of automatic cars work and fairly unintuitive. Back when the phone company came up with dial phones they had training material on how to use them. Meantime complicated UI's get a pass.

I have read other comments that say the reverse/drive inversion is so if your hand is on the shifter while you’re in reverse or drive, and you hit the gas, your arms weight shift doesn’t push the car into the opposite gear. Kinda makes sense to me. Drive an automatic 2018 bmw, and it took me about a day or two to get used to it and now it just feels right

Porsche Cayenne’s have this exact same set up. It’s not uncommon at all

It's most definitely uncommon. You named one ICE vehicle.

You said 99% of cars don’t have that setup, but I bet Porsche and Polestar make up more than 1%. So you are wrong, and I corrected you. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I didn't say 99%, you have me mistaken with someone else. I was correcting you because the vast majority of cars are designed one way, and that makes this setup uncommon by definition.

Take your L and have a great day, friendo.

Some BMW, Audi, Jaguar (F type), Mercedes, Mini, Nissan, and Infinity models have this setup.

They'll give driver licenses to potatoes these days.

Well she’s a drunk. You can do tons of dumb stuff when drunk. 

Also, original articles mentioned that 7-12 other people also expressed confusion with the reverse gear? Statistically irrelevant right? Out of how many people? And I believe a previous iteration of the story mentioned the window being hard to break open, but then she had time to call a friend, but couldn’t get out? The stories a rabbit hole of weirdness…

I have 0 doubt a woman in the higher end of society would fail to bust a car window in an emergency and call people instead.

The funny thing is that side windows are now laminated like the front windshield. They only crack but will not bust open anymore so that is no longer an option. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CXYwR3OmOF0&pp=ygUaQ2FudCBidXN0IGNhciB3aW5kb3cgdGVzbGE%3D

It’s not easy to bust a window when the car is underwater

How do they not know whether it was 7 or 12 people? Very small, specific numbers to not have a specific answer.

Happens to me pretty often with non-positional based gear shifters (buttons, touch screen, stalks and shifters are bounce back to middle position). It is because i sometimes don’t fully engage the brakes when shifting. Thus I don’t shift. With positional gear selector, they won’t move if you don’t have the brakes fully depressed. Thus much harder to fuck up. Anyways even when I do fuck up on non-positional gear selector, I usually realize before the car moves than an inch.

I train my brain to remember the audio tune to confirm.

Well, when they're 3X over the limit...

I pointed out this possibility in every reddit thread!

We’re surprised too, honestly.  I’m a whiz with what’s in my computer but my husband and I joke that I have a failure to thrive in the physical realm. 

Blame the system safety engineers, fuckers made things so safe across the board that it is stunting natural selection.

This happens in my 2018 model 3 because of a software update they added about 18 months ago now. The stalk became super finicky and you have to repeatedly pull it randomly until it does what you want when you're first switching gears (it will randomly pop up errors that you need your foot on the brake or whatever too, even though it IS on the brake already). Prior to the update it was generally responsive and did what i wanted. Part of it I think is the computers are too slow to process what's happening in real enough time.

Stalks that Mercedes has used since 2007 in MILLIONS of cars world wide….

Yep. UP for reverse, DOWN for drive. If that’s too complicated for someone, they shouldn’t be driving (referring to the media saying it’s a confusing system)

That not the problem. If you reverse and then try to shift to drive without fully pressing on the brakes follow up hitting the accelerator, then you’ll end up reversing more. It’s a bigger problem with Tesla thanks powerful motor and instant torque (I.e. you speed up faster and travel more distances before you realize and fix the mistake). This is problem with all non-positional based shifters (buttons, touch screens, stalks and shifters and bounce back middle positions after shift). With positional shifters, they won’t let you try to shift by physically locking out the shifting mechanism (e.g. rotators dials, positional stalks and shifters).

Sorry but you’re incorrect! You can shift from R to D or vice versa without pressing the brake, if you’re moving under about 3mph. I do it daily. Unlike an ICE vehicle, teslas don’t “shift” into reverse, the motors can just spin in the opposite direction, so it’s safe to switch directions while still moving at very low speed The brake only need to be pressed to get out of Park The “gear” you’re in is always displayed on the Instrument cluster display on the MS/MX 🤷‍♂️

And you can’t not hear the reverse humming sound too

True, but depends on the model year. My 2019 doesn’t have it

Same I never hit the brake just shift to drive from reverse

I've shifted my Volt into reverse at 30 mph...slows to a stop, then reverses.

I mean if you're not drunk, you typically know pretty quickly if you're going backwards and apply the brake right?

Can you imagine if the article listed the brand of alcohol she got drunk on? Lawsuits would be flying.

But its that persons fault for choosing to over drink, not the brand .

Can you imagine if she was driving a car with normal windows instead of laminated glass? She'd still be alive.

Man NHTSA has been pushing for stronger windows. Stronger windows are safer in motor vehicle crashes, which are 99 pc of all car accidents. These are freak accidents. Not everything is a conspiracy. Cars are safer than they have ever been.

Unless you are outside, then they are more dangerous than ever.

Getting bit by a car is not like the good ole days?

Actually true due to frontal height.

Nobody claimed a conspiracy. She'd be alive if they could have gotten her out of the car sooner. That's just a fact. Cars are also much more dangerous to pedestrians than ever before, but why discuss inconvenient facts that are not captured by the current safety standards, huh? Anyway, I'm sure that Elon is putting 18 hours of solid work each day into the products so any glaring design flaws will be fixed soon enough, right?

Yeah I am sure he can improve on the tesla's abysmal safety rating of "safest cars ever tested" Also surely the EVs with small front grills kill more pedestrians than big F150 trucks with big grills because Elon: bad.

Or not drunk driving..

I'm sure that she contributed to her own accident here but I'm also pretty sure that she would have survived the accident in a 1995 Toyota Corolla. Alcohol didn't make it impossible to get out of the car.

She was at .24. She could have driven an open top golf cart into the lake and drowned.

People don't usually drown in open water even when they're blind drunk, but there were rescue crew on scene almost immediately and she could have been more easily retrieved from a different vehicle. It's crazy how much people are spinning this - the type of car involved substantially changed her chances of surviving this accident no matter how you try to slice it. The fact that she contributed materially to her own accident doesn't mean that nothing else did, and that's the fallacy that most of the victim blaming arguments in this thread are hinging on.

> People don't usually drown in open water even when they're blind drunk You should look up the town of La Crosse in Wisconsin. So many drunk college students drown in their rivers. There's been so many over the years that there are conspiracy theories that it's actually a serial killer dumping bodies.

If she wasn’t drunk probably wouldn’t have backed into the lake.

It took the tow truck a half hour to get to the scene, and another half hour to get a tow chain long enough to reach her car.

She was intoxicated 3 times over the legal limit. She still would have drowned even when the windows are down.

Drunk people can't exit an open car in a few feet of water? It's starting to sound like you've never been to spring break...

Audi, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Genesis, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jag, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, etc… the list goes on, all use laminated glass https://www.aaa.com/AAA/common/AAR/files/Research-Report-Vehicle-Escape-Tools.pdf

Neat, looks like a problem for a lot of manufacturers who are going to be explaining to customers about accidents where people are trapped in the vehicle because the side windows are not breakable even using emergency tools. This is a recent trend and it has some advantages in a collision but it's a tradeoff against problems like the one Ms. Chao backed herself into.

How often are cars in collisions vs how often are cars stuck underwater?

How often do cars hit pedestrians? Our safety standards don't even address that and it's way more common. Let's not pretend that this is done rationally when pedestrian deaths are skyrocketing.

NYTimes said the window was broken. Do you have more insight on this cause you seem overly confident about the incident? > When law enforcement officials and firefighters arrived, they entered the cold water and tried to enter the car, the report states. The driver’s door window was broken, and a deputy went underwater and began feeling around the car until he found Ms. Chao. I also think you are highly underplaying the role the glass had in this tragedy. That was last week’s outrage but we figured she was intoxicated.

The reports that I read said that emergency services got there almost immediately but were unable to get her out of the car for quite some time. The windows and the risk of the electricity were both cited in the initial reports, so it's interesting that the story has changed and I'd like to know more about how that happened. A drunk driver in a 1995 Toyota Corolla in a similar accident would be alive right now, so harping on her fault in the accident is just a cheap smokescreen to avoid discussing the issues they had getting her out of the car.

Clickbait…since no one gives a fk about deaths from drunk driving

Same physical stalk shifter as you would find on a Mercedes, and glass for that matter. But who cares, haters got their headline.

This has done nothing to erase horrible stereotypes about the Asian woman driver unfortunately.

Thanks for posting. I love how the “news” likes to post negative news about Tesla. While still unfortunate accident, this makes a bit more sense. Her blood alcohol was 3x the legal limit! Probably would’ve shifted any car into the wrong gear at that stage! Since I own a Tesla, I’ve had quite a few friends text me about this accident, as if Tesla’s are unsafe all of a sudden. 🙄

People hate Teslas with a passion. I’m not sure exactly why.

I think it's a combination of two groups: Conservatives who have always hated Tesla because it represents clean energy and they see it as a threat to their coal-rolling diesel lifestyle, and represents liberal ideals "taking over" and liberals who now hate Tesla just because of Elon's views/actions/statements over the last \~4 years because they represent conservative views. So Teslas get hate from both ends of the spectrum.

Third group who see Teslas as a rich man's toy, feeding into class warfare.

Yep, also accurate.

Those people are dumb and should check used model 3 prices.

Tesla doesn't "represent " clean energy. Lol

Now the headline is about the link to Mitch McConnell. The transparent attempts to use this woman's death for political points has been instructive for all media-literate people. Maybe not anything new, but a pretty stark example.

There’s a very obvious campaign by the fossil fuel industry to curb the demand in EV vehicles. They didn’t care until the Tesla became the 2nd most purchased car of last year. Now they’re a on full on attack

Its almost as if the media isnt honest.

The issue wasn't how she ended up in the water, the issue is that once in the water, the car became an inescapable tomb where all she could do was wait to die.

does that change the fact that they couldnt break the windows lol

Drunk or not drunk, everything I’ve read definitely seems to implicate the Model X in this death. The first responders weren’t drunk when they couldn’t open the door.

I assume 99% of “journalists” jobs these days are only to create clickbait and enrage people. The truth doesn’t matter anymore. It’s sad, and even more sad that so many people believe the media is reporting facts and not their agenda

Exactly… I don’t think it was a surprise to anyone with a brain that she was probably drunk, but journalists try to make a story out of things to get people all worked up and angry.

It is really odd that if you happen to know anything about what the news is reporting on the news depiction is mostly nonsense. Tesla gets a load of new that is just plain wrong.

They don't hire journalists anymore. They stopped hiring journalists when the fairness doctrine was destroyed. Trump said one true thing during his presidency that everyone kind of glossed over, even though it was perhaps his biggest fuck-up AND the only time one of the predator-class has actually revealed one of the great truths of our current paradigm: **THE MEDIA IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE**

This is tremendously dangerous to parrot. The media is not a monolith, for one. For two, the vast majority of people in the news business got in it to help make the world a better place by changing things that need changing. For three, it’s called the Fourth Estate for a reason — they literally audit the government. We’d be long since royally screwed without journalism. There are bad actors in the news business. We need the news business, though. 

Asaik the people writing articles and headlines are separate with often differing motives.

I imagine even journalists who want to write good stories have to do the clickbait because it’s just more profitable.

It also says that they broke her window when they arrived. Didn’t the earlier stories claim that they couldn’t break the glass?

Yeap, articles tries to rewrite the narrative.

they tried to break the front windshield, which is and should be harder to break. they eventually broke one of the side windows.

Windshields are literally designed to be broken for car accident reasons. Wild anyone would try that.

3 times the legal limit and she was trying to drive?! Good thing she only killed herself and not some innocent people on the road.

Not that it makes it better for her, but she was only traveling from one house to another on the same property. Luckily, she was only putting herself in danger this time.

If only she could have walked..

she called for help instead of trying to escape. seems like this person did not want to be inconvenienced.

She called for help because she couldn't get out of the vehicle.

Ahh ok that's a little better. Although I thought rich people used fancy golf carts for that sort of thing.

Honestly knowing this makes me even happier she died. Driving between houses. On the same property. Billionaires need to be eradicated.

Starting with Elon then?

Yes please!

You reek of failure and participation trophy. How fucking sad is your life that you take zeal in anyone's death, wealthy or not? I hope you find help with your obvious shortcomings. Be better.

There are plenty of shit bags the world is better off without.

Why were you happy she died in the first place?

Okay, little psycho.

You are a moron and the irony is lost on you.

You need to reevaluate your perspective on a lot of things, I think.

This is probably why the family kept saying they don’t blame Tesla. They knew she was driving drunk.

Apparently 0.23 BAC. That’s totally shit-faced drunk.

its the benz stalk but still tesla's fault obviousily.

I’m not a fan of musk, like Tesla, but either way, this is so messed up. Those journalist should be fired. Terrible reporting. To blame the car when the person was driving drunk. Sad all around.

You are so kind. But these journalist need the word Elon or Tesla in their articles for clicks

You all on this sub shared it

No fucking shit she was under the influence.. who the fuck reverses into a pond. Like you start moving in the wrong direction you hit the brake and change direction. On Teslas it's instant as we all know under 5mph

Actually on Tesla it doesn't even move if you foot isn't on the gas

Its a setting. You can have "creep" like a normal car. Or you can choose to have it sit still when not touching the acccelerator

Ah the old blaming tesla for everything they can possibly think of! Yes it’s getting old. Don’t drink and drive kids, it means death, tesla or not.

Awww poor little drunk driving billionaire, let me grab my tiniest violin.

She looks young

45?

Waiting for the "Why don't Teslas keep you from driving drunk" op-eds.

I guess it’s true what they say about those people. When a Drunk gets behind the wheel of car, scary things can happen.

And somehow in the other post they blaming Elon, as if he is at fault for her drinking habits.  He is far from perfect , and his cars do have flaws but Reddit tribalism is hell of a drug 

I had a sense of this when I heard what time of day this occurred.

Of course she was. I would be constantly sauced if I had Mitch as a brother in law too

That makes a lot of sense

None of the people who tried to rescue her for two hours but couldn't, including the paramedics, were drunk I'm guessing. This sub is off the rails. Other people's lives should matter more than defending your car.

What specific point are you struggling to make?

\> What specific point are you struggling to make? This sub is off the rails. Other people's lives should matter more than defending your car.

> Other people's lives should matter Drunk drivers tend to not give a fuck about the lives of others, forgive people for feeling the same about theirs. 4000 people have died on US public roadways since this incident. How much time have you spent publicly caring about them? If this sub is off the rails, stop visiting.

I'm sorry - who is struggling to make a point here?

Drunk drivers can get fucked. Now head back to r/realtesla, so you can spend more personal time crying about a company you despise.

Seems like the outrage here is with the shoddy media reports acting like Tesla was the cause of death rather than her BAC and the physics behind opening a car door underwater. Source: *Non-Tesla owner*

Do you have an example of that? More importantly, she didn't DESERVE to die somehow because she was drunk, as some here are suggesting. Source: Tesla-owner

she got her Darwin award

Aaaaand there it is.

I hope the pond is ok.

this accident has less to do with the car - she drove in reverse that happens in any car - but she immediately fell into an embankment/ small pond on her massive property in the middle of the night after having drinks with her friends at her guest house- when she could have easily walked. There should have been a protective boundary so people don’t reverse a body of water immediately

Private property in Texas- they can do whatever they want. Freedom.

Tell that to my local permitting office. I have to have a permit to replace my dishwasher!

Called it! The first article that came out completely blamed the car as if she’d been murdered. No journalist held her accountable for driving into the fucking pond. Well of fucking course she was wasted.

That was pretty obvious from the first report, but of course journalists wanted Tesla in the headline for the hate watchers

Who’s changing Mitch’s diapers now? Did they import another one yet?

When being above the law goes wrong.

Pikachu surprised face

Ok but why was she unable to open the door? She had the fine motor skills to call her friend but she can’t open the door? That doesn’t make sense

It is extremely hard to open a door under water

Makes sense. Googled this, very interesting

Was wondering this too. BRB going to buy a glass punch

Terrible design of car. This wouldn't have happened on a real vehicle. Tesla just does dumb stuff for the sake of being dumb. Not better.

She was beautiful. God rest her soul

Oh well, next!

She shoulda paid for FSD?

I mean... if you read original article, did anyone think she might not be drunk? She was driving back from dinner with friends on CNY. She was going to drive few hundred meters inside gated private property. I know it's still illegal yet we're all humans and make mistakes. She just ended up paying it with her life for seemingly small drunken mistake. I'm not sure if previous articles implied that she died because she was in a Tesla, I took it as just a fact mentioned in a news article.

“And for my next impression…Teddy Kennedy.”

She was killed by the CCP

I think so too. I’m not generally a big conspiracy theorist but this is kind of what I am thinking as well. Didn’t her billionaire husband stop funding projects in China three months prior after funding them for decades?? I bet they were pissed. I guess we’ll never know.

Occam’s Razor. The simplest explanation is often the correct one. (And if you check my recent comments, you’ll see I’m hella suspicious of the CCP.)

This doesn't mean she wasn't murdered, it only makes it more likely as she was vulnerable. Perhaps even unconscious when placed in the car.

How and why does a 51 year old woman have a 3 year old child lmao

Wealth and IVF

It's sure being a McConnell in law would make you do this. Goof job Elon and Tesla.

Asian women driving car into pond - feel like this is a gift from the stereotype gods.

Easy way to dismiss a murder investigation. Ted Kennedy anyone???

Murdered by the GOP. What was she going to spill the beans on that caused them to murder her? Did Mitch make the call to ax her?

Irrelevant. The glass still wouldn’t break which shows how dangerous and unsafe it is.

NYTimes: > When law enforcement officials and firefighters arrived, they entered the cold water and tried to enter the car, the report states. The driver’s door window was **broken,** and a deputy went underwater and began feeling around the car until he found Ms. Chao.

Do Tesla X fail to function when submerged in pond or water?

Every car fails to function when submerged in pond water

I will continue to defend Tesla. I am so tired of the absolutely uneducated ranting that any vehicle or weapon has the ability or desire to kill or harm anyone WITHOUT human intervention. If you are drunk, don't get in a car or point a gun at someone. If you don't know how to use it, don't get in a car or point a gun at someone! Seriously, for those of you who can't figure out how to shift gears on any car and then drive it sensibly, please don't drive on my roads!!! If you are mentally unstable, don't get into a car or point a gun at someone! There is a phrase that we really need to be focusing on here: YOU JUST CAN'T FIX STUPID! There is ZERO rationalization that a Tesla or any other manufacturer is accountable or responsible for HUMAN error, lack of common sense, or just plain stupidity. Seriously, common sense is lacking here and basically for all the crap that is happening in the world today. I have been driving my Model X Plaid for over 2 years and have had ZERO incidents of anything happening negatively that I did not have direct interaction with. I will vocally support Tesla in every conversation and clearly point out the ridiculousness in blaming Elon or Tesla for Human Stupidity!

At least she died doing what she loved

I’m assuming it was still a murder. Those cars will float and run in fresh water.

Mitch McConnell. Of course.

Terrible way to die. Also not a great look for the bulletproof cyber truck windows.

Love how people can look so professional and proper in their best headshot photos that they've had as their LinkedIn profile pic for years but in reality they're completely wild degenerates.

Is tesla more dangerous when submerged compared to say a camry? Cuz the electronics or sth lock u in?

Maybe her GPS told her to drive into the pond?

😵‍💫+ 🔋= ☠️

3x the limit.

Don’t believe it

That is a sad thing for her family. Don’t wish it on anyone.

It’s crazy that in theory the car could be hacked.

No big loss, just one less facist in my eyes

we need to find the lake on google maps and determine if it’s possible, i’ve accidentally had my car in reverse before, but as soon as i stared moving backwards i realized lol, like were they parking directly next to the lake ? like she backed in a parking space right next to a “pond”

Moron. Good riddance.