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Author | Editor Zhang Ruichen | Wu Xianzhi
Source: Photon travel
On November 5, in Raoping County, Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province, a man (Mr. Zhan) was driving a Tesla (Model Y) to stop when the vehicle suddenly lost control and ran at a high speed for two kilometers, hitting two motorcycles and two bicycles in succession, causing two deaths and three injuries. The owner claimed that the brake failed.
As the recent Chaozhou Tesla incident continues to ferment on the Internet, several accident videos have been exposed.
According to the information provided by the surveillance video, Mr. Zhan drove Tesla from his home to his own cement store about one kilometer away at about 7:00 a.m. on November 5. He stepped on the brake and adjusted his direction in the first half of the way.
Mr. Zhan described that when he arrived at the store door to pull over, he found that the brake pedal was too hard to stop, and there was no response when pressing P gear. Mr. Zhan had to drive on. After driving to the left and onto the cement road, he suddenly accelerated, and slammed on the brake in the middle of the road did not work, but the speed was getting faster and faster.
After driving about 1.2 km at a high speed, the vehicle was unable to dodge and hit a two wheeled motorcycle in the same direction, and then collided with a bicycle in the opposite lane. Later, Tesla continued to drive at a high speed for about 1.4km even though the left front wheel had blown out. The vehicle hit a three wheeled motorcycle, then a high school girl who was riding a bicycle, and finally stopped after hitting a van and van at the door of a shop.
The accident caused two wheeled motorcycle driver and high school students riding bicycles to die on the spot, three wheeled motorcycle driver was seriously injured, and many others were injured.
Tesla's response to this: from the existing accident video, it can be seen that the brake light has not been lit for a long time during high-speed driving.
Background data display:
(1) The vehicle switch is pressed down deeply for a long time, and once maintained at 100%;
(2) The brake is not pressed during the whole process;
(3) During driving, the driver briefly presses the P gear button four times, and then quickly releases it. At the same time, the brake lamp also lights up and goes out quickly.
Mr. Zhan insisted that the vehicle was out of control and said that he did not drink on the day of the accident and the day before; When the accident happened, the foot was always on the brake plate, and the accelerator was not pressed; Press the P gear button several times; Has been avoiding pedestrians.
In response to the media interview, the Chaozhou Traffic Police Brigade said that the accident was still under further investigation, and "the identification results have not yet come out".
Tesla believes that Mr. Zhan did not step on the brake during the whole process, but from the monitoring video, Tesla once had a brief brake light on during the whole process of the accident, and there were no obstacles in front of it, so it was ruled out that Tesla's automatic emergency brake was lit.
So it shows that Mr. Zhan has been stepping on the brake pedal all the time, and Tesla has only given this brake feedback once. If Tesla doesn't have brake failure, why do you press P four times?
It is worth noting that from January 1, 2022, Tesla's passenger cars sold in China must be equipped with an event data recording system, commonly known as the "black box". It means that the vehicle data should be saved in three aspects: 1. Stay on the Chinese platform. 2. Send back to the US headquarters. 3. Stay in the vehicle itself. However, according to Mr. Zhan's son, the vehicle was purchased from a friend in November 2021, so Tesla in this accident was not equipped with an event data recording system.
So we can't learn much about this "brake failure" event, even what we see is what Tesla wants to show us. It's not easy to really understand the truth.
However, this is not the first time that Tesla has "brake failure"
Three days before the Tesla incident in Chaozhou, that is, on November 2, 2022, at about 9:00 p.m. in Nanjing, a Tesla owner drove his Model X through an intersection to turn. The vehicle suddenly lost control before it was completely in the right direction. The owner grabbed the steering wheel and rushed across three intersections.
The maximum speed reached 150 km/h, and the owner said that there was "brake failure" at that time. Later, he thought of the way to wipe the bridge guardrail to stop the car. Finally, the car stopped because the front axle of the wheel was broken. From the place where the car was out of control to the place where the car stopped, there were indeed 1.8 km long scratches, and there were many parts of the car.
Tesla's official answer to this is that the background did not detect the brake data. The car owner kept pressing the switch, causing the car to lose control. After the collision, the car's switch was still pressed, and said that the car owner did not press the brake. Then the owner called in the traffic police squadron for on-site monitoring video display, and the car quickly passed several intersections, but the brake light was not displayed.
Again, the same driver kept pressing the switch, the same driver did not press the brake, and the same brake light did not light up. It seems that Tesla has made the same explanation for every "brake failure".
The funniest thing is that the owner of the Nanjing Tesla accident said: "The brake must have been stepped on, and kept stepping on, but there was no response. I am a senior driver. I bought this car in 2019, and I have driven it for more than three years. I know how to wipe the car off the bridge, but I don't know how to release the accelerator or step on the brake? Can you put this logic on ordinary people or think about it for yourself? "
Indeed, according to normal logic, can the driver who can think of stopping the vehicle through friction and front axle fracture mistakenly use the accelerator as the brake in his panic?
In addition to the two consecutive Tesla "brake failure" incidents at the beginning of November, there have been many before.
1. At that time, there was an uproar about the rights protection incident at the Shanghai International Automobile Exhibition. On April 19, 2021, Ms. Zhang, wearing a T-shirt with the words "brake failure", made a big fuss at Tesla's booth. Both sides also had different opinions on the cause of the accident, and then Ms. Zhang and Tesla started a long legal journey.
2. On December 12, 2020, a Tesla Model S crashed into a building in a residential area in Haidian District, Beijing. The owner said that when the accident happened, the vehicle suddenly lost control and the brake failed, and crashed into the residential building at a speed of 80km/h.
3. On August 9, 2020, the anti-collision bar, pillar and other facilities in a gas station in Shanghai Yangxian were directly damaged by a Tesla Model 3 that suddenly rushed into the gas station, and three fuel vehicles parked in the gas station were also damaged. The impact directly caused serious damage to the head of Tesla Model 3, and the airbag in the car directly popped out. The owner said that the vehicle seemed out of control and directly broke into the gas station.
It is interesting that recently Tesla was in the midst of the public opinion of price reduction and security risks. One netizen unexpectedly installed a dash cam with pedal position for his newly bought Tesla, claiming that "I trust Tesla, but trust is worthless."
Write at the end
Tesla produced before 2022 does not have an event data recording system. The data we can see is just what Tesla wants to show us. It cannot be said that Tesla should pay for all the so-called "brake failure", nor should it throw the pan on the driver. But once is a coincidence, twice is an accident, and that again and again and again is not justified. It would be a big deal if Tesla knew it was the problem with its own brakes and covered up the truth.
(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
