Driver survives after being side-swiped and pushed it into a tree by a truck
Paul M.
Tesla Model Y has been crowned one of the safest vehicles on Earth, thanks to near-perfect results in crash-worthiness tests. This has also been verified in the real world in countless accidents where Tesla’s high safety measures helped protect passengers in the vehicle. A recent crash turned a Tesla Model Y into a pile of twisted metal and yet, its driver survived to tell the story.
Not everyone buying a new vehicle considers safety at the top of their feature list. Still, accidents do happen, and often with tragic consequences. A recent NHTSA statistic revealed that more than 9,000 Americans lost their lives in a traffic crash in the first three months of 2023 alone, which is a terrifying figure. This is why thoughtful people choose a vehicle that not only has the features they want but also offers the utmost protection in case of a crash. Better still, a vehicle that can prevent an accident from happening in the first place.
Unfortunately, not all crashes can be prevented by the car’s safety assistance systems, such as Automatic Emergency Braking. When the worst happens, your life depends on how well the vehicle withstands the crash’s forces. Electric cars have a big advantage with a larger crumple zone due to the lack of an engine in the front. Still, without sophisticated crash-protection systems, from carefully designed crumple zones to efficient restraint systems, the car’s weight is not enough to save you. Thankfully, a Tesla Model Y is designed and built to protect its passengers in the most horrific crashes.
One Model Y owner will forever be indebted to Tesla for designing such a safe vehicle. Nobody seeing the pictures he shared on Facebook can imagine this was a survivable crash. According to a Facebook post by Paul M, which was shared on X (Twitter) by TeslaNorth, the accident happened after a commercial truck side-swiped his Tesla and pushed it into a group of trees. The truck then struck it from behind in a secondary impact that proved even more devastating than hitting the trees.
Driver survives after being side-swiped and pushed it into a tree by a truck
Paul M.
Paul didn’t lose consciousness during the crash and was able to pull himself out of the passenger window. Thanks to the protection his Tesla Model Y offered, he is now recovering in a hospital. Paul was told by the police that being in the Tesla saved his life. If the car had a front engine, it would have likely crushed him.
Tesla models have always been awarded the highest scores in crashworthiness tests conducted by safety agencies such as the NHTSA, Euro NCAP, and other new-car assessment agencies across the globe. The Model Y especially has been appreciated for its passive protection, increasing the survivability rate in case of a crash.
It also features one of the most advanced active safety systems, being able to intervene faster than the driver to prevent a crash. We’ve all seen many videos on social media showing Tesla reacting to dangerous traffic situations, saving the day before the human driver even realized something was off.
There are a few features to keep in mind when taking your Tesla through a car wash, but Tesla’s Car Wash Mode makes it easy by enabling or disabling several features for you. These settings don’t only prevent damage to your vehicle, such as locking the charge port door so that it doesn’t automatically open when a cleaning brush touches it, but they also improve the experience by recirculating the air in the vehicle to prevent cleaning chemical smells from coming in.
Car Wash Mode makes it easy by giving you a checklist of items and their real-time status, alerting you of any important items, such as your trunk being open.
When activated from Controls > Service > Car Wash Mode, it performs a list of actions:
Automatically closes all windows
Locks the charge port door to prevent accidental opening
While Car Wash Mode monitors more than a handful of items, it doesn’t continuously check the status of your windows. When you first enter Car Wash Mode, the vehicle will automatically roll up any open windows. However, it won’t alert you if a window has been lowered after Car Wash Mode was enabled. This could spell disaster for your vehicle's interior, as one user found out.
Lincoln posted a video on X, demonstrating what happened to his friend and requesting that Tesla add open windows to the list of flags in Car Wash Mode.
Tesla’s Troy R. Jones, VP of North America Sales and Service, noticed the post and decided to take action, offering to pass on the suggestion to the vehicle software team.
Good recommendation. Sharing with the team. Thanks
While Troy’s response doesn’t confirm the feature being added in a future update, it’ll at least be put in front of the software team to potentially address.
Tesla could add this window-specific solution in several ways. Tesla could add this as another on-screen flag while the vehicle is in Car Wash Mode, simply alerting the driver that there’s a window open. However, they could also go one step further and lock the rear windows to prevent accidental opening while Car Wash Mode is enabled.
In case of an emergency, Tesla could present an on-screen button that pops up when a user tries to open a window while Car Wash Mode is activated, letting the driver override Car Wash Mode.
We’re interested to see what Tesla would do here, as these little quality-of-life changes really improve the end-user experience. What else would you like to see added to Car Wash Mode?
Tesla offers a range of home energy products — from the widely used Wall Connector to the Powerwall and the innovative Solar Roof. Now, for the first time, a unique residential development in Houston, Texas, combines all of these technologies — and more — to move toward energy self-sufficiency.
Self-Sufficient
This community, located in Oaks of Shady Acres and built by Utopia Homes, consists of just 11 townhomes, each designed using Tesla technology to be self-sufficient. Utopia has equipped the homes with Solar Roofs, Powerwalls, and Wall Connectors to complete the entire ecosystem.
Tesla’s Solar Roof replaces traditional roofing materials while doubling as a clean energy source during daylight hours. The best part is that it mimics the look of conventional shingles while improving durability and longevity. Any excess energy generated is stored in the home’s Powerwall 3 units, providing power when the sun is down.
Tesla's Solar Roof
Not a Tesla App
Tesla’s Universal Wall Connector, which can charge any EV equipped with either a NACS or CCS port (through a J1772 adapter). If you added on a Cybertruck with Powershare (more vehicles will support Powershare in the future), you’d have a backup system that would last an extremely long time on batteries alone.
A Powerwall 3 stores about 13.5 kWh of energy, while a Cybertruck has a battery pack of 123 kWh, which is roughly equivalent to about nine Powerwalls. In addition, the Cybertruck could be used as a “mobile battery pack,” which can get additional energy from Superchargers and bring it back to the home if there’s an extended power outage.
Utopia markets these homes with “100% energy security,” - but they’re still grid-connected. However, they appear to have made quite a point with this - as many people in Texas, with its notoriously unstable electricity grid - were excited to get into these homes.
Sadly, these homes still include a gas range, so they’re not entirely green and disconnected. This likely comes down to the fact that powering an induction range alongside a heat pump in the winter could draw more energy than Powerwall 3 is capable of outputting instantaneously.
Attention Getters
These 11 homes attracted a lot of attention - according to a broker working on Utopia’s team, they had requests to see or buy these homes coming from across the country. Priced around $544,900, these homes are about $150,000 higher than Houston’s median list pricing for similarly sized townhomes, but the benefits are clear for many buyers who will recoup these additional costs over the home’s life.
Utopia has acknowledged the demand for Tesla-powered and future-proofed homes like these and is already planning to build more in the future. This is an excellent showcase of what an electric-powered future could look like, and we’re excited to see more of these types of homes and neighborhoods in the future.
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