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Model X Crash on US-101 (Mountain View, CA)
- Thread starter mookhead
- Start date
Drove by around 3:30pm and the new smart cushion was installed. I think the orange sign saying lane closed from last year was still there though.
Also, witnessed one sedan and one pickup crossing the split area, both at speed >65mph and pretty close to the cushion. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it happens hundreds of times everyday. Not implying this is what happened here, but the site can certainly use some improvements.
Also, witnessed one sedan and one pickup crossing the split area, both at speed >65mph and pretty close to the cushion. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it happens hundreds of times everyday. Not implying this is what happened here, but the site can certainly use some improvements.
Even if it was having someone impact it once a month, that would seem too frequently to me. (IMHO)
Now that we know what to check for, let's see how long the new one stays reset.
I hope they consider better markings / warnings to stop people from cutting through that gore area.
Now that we know what to check for, let's see how long the new one stays reset.
I hope they consider better markings / warnings to stop people from cutting through that gore area.
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EV-lutioin
Active Member
Yes chevrons like these would really help. Europe does this much better than the states.
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e-FTW
New electron smell
A few folks have mentioned that he worked for Apple. I haven't seen a source for that though. Did I miss that?
Hope Tesla figures out the cause of the fire and implements upgrades to elevate future fires. This was probably a good lesson for other EV makes. So sorry for the driver!
Not defending the X just because I have one but taking all factors into consideration - I'll take the overall safety package of the X for my family with everyday scenarios than planning for very specific scenarios where an X is not as ideal as another car.
Drives me nuts how people complain about the danger of not having an indoor latch in the 3. I'm like:
1 - Any car with the child safety locks engaged creates the same scenario.
2 - Nobody is constantly harping the i3 with its suicide doors as a mobile coffin. Yet somehow the Model 3 is!
I've been trained by decades of video gaming that driving on Chevrons will give my vehicle a super speed boost.
The cause of the fire is obvious. The battery case was smashed, leading to the cells or other parts of the module shorting together and causing the cells to overheat. This process does not happen fast like a gasoline fire, it takes some time to develop. The problem is that it's hard to put out because it's encased and the electrolyte is inherently flammable.
Considering the crash structure absorbs a constant amount of energy, everything else equal, in this particular crash type, a lighter car would have fared better. i.e. I'd choose the smallest car that aces the EuroNCAP / IIHS overlap and IIHS small overlap tests.
Which reminds me that the only Tesla tested on IIHS is the Model S, which did NOT achieve good scores in the small overlap test, even after two sets of "fixes" from Tesla.
Any container that holds enough energy to propel a vehicle ~300 miles is going to get rather hot if you shatter it and let all that energy out in a short period of time. As miimura mentions at least with a battery it starts much more slowly and controlled than with a gas tank. I'd love to imagine a gas tank that performs a fraction as safely with 20% torn off. I'm impressed with how the battery performed, especially as some of the coverage said that 1/2 the battery remained unaffected.
Specifically in this situation it appears that the windows were smashed out due to the impact, so I wonder if it would have been possible to extract a child through the window. In general it's probably a good idea to have one of those hammer/cutting tools somewhere in the car in the event you need to get someone out through a window (or potentially cut through a seatbelt/child seat restraint).
Tesla already added super high strength shields to protect the pack from road hazards that could pierce the pack from underneath.
But this horrific accident looks like a worse case scenario - a jagged edged, narrow, fixed object made out of ultra high strength metal being run into at freeway speeds.
Personally, I don't think they can really plan to handle events like this safely. I am more concerned that highway departments leave objects of this type in the middle of the freeway.
It seems like the barrier acted like a fork that grabbed the front of the X, and then broke off the rest of it and flipped it over.
I don't know how feasible it would be for Tesla to make the front bumper strong enough to withstand such an impact.
The barrier was supposed to be in a state to absorb (most of) the impact energy, and not use the steering rack, and gearbox as the impact absorbers.
The idea behind the older highway barrier was soft materials (plastic barrels with sand).
The idea behind the new barrier is nearly indestructible solid metal... ( But with non-functioning mechanism intended to absorb energy. )
Personally I would rather run into something soft and pliable.
All the literature I ready about that smart cushion talks about how it can absorb impacts if you run into it when it is retracted and ready.
I didn't see any info on what they expect if you run into it already impacted/crushed.
To me, it looks like it has transformed into something designed to tear open the front of a car and break it apart.
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mkspeedr
Member
I am not a fan of the barrels filled with sand. The barrels are often placed on the entrances to over passes and after the first week of people crashing into them the sand transfers to the roadway. Sand sucks on two wheels.
I like Chevrons, blinking signs, reflectors or machines that grab smart phones out of your hands while your driving and smashes them into a million pieces.
I like Chevrons, blinking signs, reflectors or machines that grab smart phones out of your hands while your driving and smashes them into a million pieces.
Oh, yeah. I forgot Darin Adler's org was over there in one of the LinkedIn buildings. And there are a few other Apple groups that have bled into parts of Sunnyvale. I just automatically assumed Cupertino.
Nothing official. I heard it from someone at work who heard it from someone else.
I drove by this same junction this afternoon, and noticed they fixed the smart cushion:
However they still leave the outdated sign there:
Since then, every time I drove by this section, I have a horrible feeling for knowing how negligence cost peoples lives.
However they still leave the outdated sign there:
Since then, every time I drove by this section, I have a horrible feeling for knowing how negligence cost peoples lives.
drove by this same junction this afternoon, and noticed they fixed the smart cushion:
And it only took them, what? Almost 4 days?
Such a shame they couldnt have done that within 4 days of the prior crash.
Not entirely correct. The “idea behind the structure” was indeed to absorb energy by design, and based on the photos of he accident, had been completely utilized in what appears to be a textbook fashion.
Note that the structure has a flat surface on the front to spread the load and not cut through a vehicle. Here is a crash test on another type of impact attenuator with a similar surface
P.S. I pass by that particular exit ~weekly, and I’ve never recently seen it in a bad condition as shown in your 2015 photos.
Unfortunately the X is a heavy vehicle, and the energy absorbed by the structure wasn’t enough to save the driver. Very sad indeed
Note that the structure has a flat surface on the front to spread the load and not cut through a vehicle. Here is a crash test on another type of impact attenuator with a similar surface
P.S. I pass by that particular exit ~weekly, and I’ve never recently seen it in a bad condition as shown in your 2015 photos.
Unfortunately the X is a heavy vehicle, and the energy absorbed by the structure wasn’t enough to save the driver. Very sad indeed
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f-stop
Active Member
Not entirely correct. The “idea behind the structure” was indeed to absorb energy by design, and based on the photos of he accident, had been completely utilized in what appears to be a textbook fashion.
[…]
Unfortunately the X is a heavy vehicle, and the energy absorbed by the structure wasn’t enough to save the driver. Very sad indeed
perhaps you missed the revelation back about a dozen pages earlier in this thread (?), but another TMC member posted dashcam video recorded 1.5 hours earlier that same morning showing that impact barrier was ALREADY in a compressed/damaged state (from some prior impact) before the accident with the Model X occurred. So, sadly the barrier was in no state to absorb the energy it was designed to do, whether MX-weight vehicle or not.
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