Model S Head-on collision in Spain

[MarcoRP]

I saw this in my YouTube feed.

Last week, there was a fatal accident near Barcelona implicating four vehicles on Highway C16, in the main tunnel of Vallvidera, filmed by a CCTV camera inside the tunnel. A rented vehicle driving towards the CCTV derouted into the lane with opposite trafic, pitting a first then colliding head-on the Model S. The pitted vehicle deviated due to the collision then crashed into a vehicle in the opposing lane.

The Tesla driver walked away from the accident with minor injuries but the driver of the pitted vehicle succumbed to his injuries the next day.

 

[rsg123]

Impressive. That looked like the dreaded “small overlap” front collision.

 

[tranzndance]

I'm not sure what "pit" means. Is it this? PIT maneuver - Wikipedia

 

[PhilDavid]

This is partly why I wish that Autopilot would offset to a bias away from oncoming traffic. I wish there was a setting for this as that is my preferred driving style.

Definitely NOT blaming AP or anything here (don't even know if it was on) but when I drive manually, if traffic is oncoming on the opposite lane with no divider, I always offset closer to the curb away from oncoming traffic. This accident was caused by the oncoming driver for sure but the Mini driving so close to the center line didn't help.

If both the Mini and the Tesla were both offset away from oncoming traffic and closer towards the right hand side, the severity of this accident might have been less and could have been the difference between a devastating small overlap crash with the Tesla and just grazing the side of the Tesla.

Sad that someone died.

 

[Ostrichsak]

This is partly why I wish that Autopilot would offset to a bias away from oncoming traffic. I wish there was a setting for this as that is my preferred driving style.

Definitely NOT blaming AP or anything here (don't even know if it was on) but when I drive manually, if traffic is oncoming on the opposite lane with no divider, I always offset closer to the curb away from oncoming traffic. This accident was caused by the oncoming driver for sure but the Mini driving so close to the center line didn't help.

If both the Mini and the Tesla were both offset away from oncoming traffic and closer towards the right hand side, the severity of this accident might have been less and could have been the difference between a devastating small overlap crash with the Tesla and just grazing the side of the Tesla.

Sad that someone died.

Playing Devil's advocate on your suggestion: If it biased away from the center-line you would put things in the right hand lane or shoulder in danger. Where I live there are TONS of bicycle riders and I often find myself cringing at how close the car comes to the bike path and often times the bicyclist doesn't even show up on my dash as I pass making me believe it never even saw.

 

[PhilDavid]

Playing Devil's advocate on your suggestion: If it biased away from the center-line you would put things in the right hand lane or shoulder in danger. Where I live there are TONS of bicycle riders and I often find myself cringing at how close the car comes to the bike path and often times the bicyclist doesn't even show up on my dash as I pass making me believe it never even saw.

I'm more concerned about oncoming traffic from the other direction at a much large speed delta.

If there is a cyclist to my right, I slow down and given then a wide berth while passing, and hopefully the cyclist insn't recklessly weaving all over the place and running red lights as I see around where i live. This is not a bicycle issue here, as there was neither a bicycle path nor a cyclist on the video. Obviously, no one here is suggesting offsetting to the right when there is a cyclist there.

My point is offsetting away from oncoming traffic is generally safer than almost straddling the middle lane divider. Most times when I take away control from Autopilot is when I feel uncomfortable with how the car is not offsetting away from oncoming traffic.

 

[darxsys]

One of the biggest reasons why I bought this car is the safety. Good job Tesla.

Sad that the other person died

 

[MarcoRP]

I'm not sure what "pit" means. Is it this? PIT maneuver - Wikipedia

Yes. That is more what I intended it to mean. Like on the blue vehicle, it was just a little hit on the corner which made it deviate from trajectory, reminding of the cop maneuver.