Usually, it’s a relief when a fellow driver offers to wave you through heavy traffic. However, this simple act can sometimes lead to disaster if it isn’t done properly – that is, if all the lanes aren’t protected. Unfortunately for the Chevy Tahoe and Tesla involved in this video, what we have here is a clear case of when the wave-through goes wrong.
The video appears as though it was captured in Los Angeles this past July. The video was shot by a dash cam from another other motorist, and, according to the video overlay, the incident occurred around 4:45 p.m. local time – peak rush hour.
In the video, we see a palm-tree lined surface street, with a good amount of traffic traveling in both directions. Cars are traveling at a good clip as drivers are eager to get home from work. A Tesla is seen in the leftmost lane with their left turn signal activated. The dash cam vehicle is stopped behind the Tesla, waiting to turn left as well.
As the video gets under way, we see traffic in the opposing lanes slow down to allow the Tesla to turn. We see a break in the double yellow line where the Tesla is attempting to turn. Cars in two of the opposing lanes come to a stop, prompting the Tesla to move forward.
Unfortunately, as the Tesla inches forward to make the turn, the driver fails to notice a Chevy Tahoe traveling in the third outer lane. As the driver in the Tesla moves forward, they find themselves suddenly positioned perpendicular to the outermost lane – right in front of the Chevy Tahoe.
The result is a heavy T-bone collision. Although it’s not totally clear, it appears as though the Chevy Tahoe was moving at a pretty quick pace when it hit, and may have been speeding. Either way, we hope all involved were unhurt.
Check out the full crash video right here:
Comments
Tesla at fault. Should have looked.
The Tesla shouldn’t have tried the turn at all. It’s impossible to see down the right lane far enough especially if the Tahoe was traveling fast.
The Tahoe should have been cautious too. I always creep along when I am in a right lane with traffic clogging the left lanes knowing that somebody is going to try to turn in front. I
I’ve binge-watched enough accident videos to know it’s danger territory whenever the right lane is going faster than the left. It’s 100x worse when the left lane is completely stationary.
Living in LA, you see this all the time. Was the Tesla at fault? More than likely. But the Tahoe driver, like so many driving these huge tanks, was going totally way too fast for what the other lanes were doing and mostly stopped. I see this multiple times per day where impatient drivers like this Tahoe will use a parking lane (if no cars are parked there) and will rush past the slowed down or stopped cars. Had the Tahoe been traveling at half the speed, they most likely would have been able to stop or be respectful and allowed the Tesla to pass through. After all, the Tahoe was probably only a few feet from an intersection anyhow.
Good thing it wasn’t the TESLA hitting the Tahoe at that speed. Insurance Company Underwriters are only just beginning to realize that the increased weight of EVs creates more damage in a vehicle to vehicle collision. One of the National TV Evening News programs had a recent piece showing how that additional EV weight is defeating and overwhelming some safety barriers like guardrails.
Wow. Do you know how easy it is to Google something?
Since we don’t know the exact year of the vehicles, I estimated the Tahoe as a 2003 and the Model Y as a 2021.
Tahoe: +/- 4,900 lbs.
Model Y: +/- 4,300 lbs.
Care to amend your anti EV statement?
That Tesla Model Y weighs the same as a Toyota 4 Runner and LESS than the Tahoe, you may want to reconsider getting educated by national news.
Tesla driver: “My Autopilot was on. It’s my Teslas fault.”
All jokes aside though, this is a classic example of why autonomous cars and human brains cannot co-exist and why we will never see this fantasy dream pipe world full of self-driving cars at least in out lifetimes. If the Tesla driver was using Autopilot, the system would not have been able to think outside the box and sense the speeding Tahoe at a distance. If the driver was the one driving (which seems to be the case here) and was paying attention, he would have either seen it coming from afar or not attempted the turn at all. The two cars stopped because they saw he was pursuing with the turn already so he wasn’t paying attention but he could have still seen the speeding Tahoe.