Heroic Driver Sacrifices His Tesla To Save Unconscious Man In Runaway Volkswagen

[Roadster]

From Jalopnik...

Heroic Driver Sacrifices His Tesla To Save Unconscious Man In Runaway Volkswagen

"Anyone who puts their $70,000+ car on the line to keep a total stranger safe is a bit of a stud in my book."

^This...

...and Elon offers to cover the repair costs.

 

[kort677]

I read somewhere that elon said that tesla would assist/pay for the damages to the guy's car

 

[Roadster]

@kort677, yup he posted on Twitter. Click the second link above.

BTW, is our hero a TMC'r?

 

[Reekdog]

Saw that... wow, heads up thinking and an amazing feat of bravery. It's a miracle the VW driver didn't crash or flip over when he lost consciousness.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

"VW Driver blames autopilot for crash" .... I give it a week.

 

[VolkerP]

I saw it all over the news front pages today in Munich. The driver's a hero there.

 

[NCC-1701-T]

Hero in my book.

 

[Roadster]

Our rockstar's name is Manfred Kick. Photos below of him and his MS from Electrek (more photos of the crash scene there) as well as an interview with him on Süeddeutsche Zeitung. His Facebook profile can be found here if you'd like to give him kudos publicly.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

That's some bad ass quick thinking right there. Props.

 

[grichard]

That was impressively quick thinking on the driver's part.

Do you notice that Mr. Musk's tweet offers the repair "free of charge **and expedited**"? I've read a bunch of threads here about delays at European service centers. It appears that he's well aware of that problem.

 

[NCC-1701-T]

That's not that much damage considering the forces involved.

 

[tmarcc]

That's not that much damage considering the forces involved.

+1. That's why it's 'only' 10,000 Euros worth of damage lol.

He must have slowed down both cars quite gently. Great reflexes and driving.

 

[Mookuh]

That's not that much damage considering the forces involved.

According to the interview, the VW was going around 40 km/h at the time, so it wasn't going at breakneck speed (though certainly enough to leave a bigger bump than that.)
Mr. Kick explained in the interview that he intentionally breaked hard enough for the initial impact to register with the crash sensors of the car behind him, so that the doors would unlock. Considering that, the damage is minimal indeed. The 10.000€ figure is combined damage of both cars from what I know.

If I was him and it was safe to do so, I'd actually consider keeping the damage as a battle scar of sorts. Either way, kudos to Mr. Kick!

 

[jerry33]

That's really impressive.

 

[Roadster]

Mr. Kick explained in the interview that he intentionally breaked hard enough for the initial impact to register with the crash sensors of the car behind him, so that the doors would unlock.

^Brilliant!

@elonmusk @teslamotors pls consider giving Manfred Kick a job @ Tesla for whatever salary he wants. He more than earned it! #elonmusk #teslamotors

 

[AustinPowers]

Actually he is an entrepreneur himself so I think he wouldn't need a job with Tesla ;-)

By the way, interesting to note that his Model S has the Aero wheels, which seem to be quite rare, at least over here.

And also interesting was a note in a second SZ article, where Mr. Kick said that he didn't mind the damage, even though he added that it was a little bit unfortunate because up to now the car was accident-free and he intended to sell it shortly, because he already had a new Tesla on order - which had a tow hitch. In other words, his car on order must be a Model X. Or is there a towing package now available on the facelift Model S also? I don't think so.