Yes that's sad to find out like that. But it's wild how they were putting EVERYTHING on the Tesla and Caltran as if the driver did nothing wrong and Telsa/caltran failed the driver. I'm one of the people that occasionally used the hack But if I was to get in an accident I would take full responsibility , not blame it on Tesla or any barriers. I use it but pay attention. When you don't pay attention while driving, no matter if you're using a hack, no hack, or driving a car other than a Tesla, bad things will happen. Drivers need to own their responsibility when they don't pay attention and drive negligently
Had he lived who’s to say if he wouldn’t have accepted blame. I do believe the wife did not know he was playing games on his phone while operating the car. I’m sure he was very careful when his family was in the car. Considering she had his accounts of several AP tracking issues at that junction, which were supported by discussions he had with a family member and a friend, I think it’s understandable she went this route. Not sure where this will leave her and her family without his financial support but I think there could be some settlement with Caltran over the barrier. There were three other damaged cars as a result of his impacting the wall and with I think only minor injuries. Not sure how that works with insurance in a case like this. There will also be hospital and emergency response costs. Mentioning all this as fodder for thought about accidents and those we might leave behind in worse case scenario.
I could see the logic of a driver seeing a crash attenuator / barrier setup like that day in and day out and thinking, 'yeah I'm trusting the Tesla but the worst that will happen is scraping the side of my car'. I'm guessing he played the game regularly and hadn't noticed the damage on any previous drive through. So in his mind the risk of playing the game wasn't as high as it turned out to be. If I were one of his family members I'd be going after Caltrans and quietly drop or downplay any mention of Tesla. Focus on the one external party they can and avoid fighting losing battles vs other parties.
Sorry, but I don't understand how anyone can feel confident enough to play a video game while driving on AP at 70 mph. Maybe in stop and go traffic, but not driving at these speeds.
When I was in high school, decades ago, and taking school sponsored driver's ed class, we had a very effective demonstration using a driving simulator. It had a real car steering wheel and screen in front with various roadway scenes, also a speedometer and even accelerator/brake pedals on the floor. Anyway the instructor would run these simulations where you started driving and during one of these "lessons" you were asked to take your hands off the wheel and put them on your lap while the car was driving down the highway at speed (back then probably 55mph). The program would suddenly send the car veering out of the lane you were driving in (recall they actually simulated a blown tire too and the strong pull of the wheel from that) and you had to grab the wheel and keep the car on the road before you crashed and come to a stop. The same scenario would be run but with your hands on the wheel. The point of the lesson was to show how those few seconds it took to get your hands on the wheel to take evasive action could make all the difference in whether your crashed (and maybe died) or were able to recover. You could run this at various speeds too. Pretty effective demonstration and really a great simulator. I don't think they even do driver's ed training in schools these days.
Maybe you misunderstood the phrase "I can see the logic". It means I can follow a path of thought that someone might have. It does not mean I want to do it myself or that I'd suggest you do it. The actual logic I was talking about is thinking that the situation today on that path is the same as the prior trips on that path. It was proved false logic because the crash barrier was damaged and thus conditions were different on the day of the crash than they had been vs the first time he took that route, but I can understand the thought process that gets you there.