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submitted 4 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Shipping tycoon Angela Chao was drunk when she inadvertently reversed her Tesla into a pond and drowned last month at a Texas ranch, police say.

Blanco County Sheriff's Office found her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the state's legal limit.

The 50-year-old died after dinner on 10 February with a group of friends at the estate near Johnson City.

Her brother-in-law, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, cited the tragedy in his resignation speech.

On Wednesday, Blanco County Sheriff's Office released the findings of its investigation concluding Ms Chao's death was an "unfortunate accident".

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[-] stanleytweedle@lemmy.world 97 points 4 months ago

Fuck drunk drivers. Just glad she didn't kill anyone else.

[-] Pistcow@lemm.ee 59 points 4 months ago

Bummer Mitch McConnell wasn't in the trunk.

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 50 points 4 months ago

Oh, I didn’t know he went by his middle name

[-] Pistcow@lemm.ee 7 points 4 months ago

(☞゚ヮ゚)☞

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[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 69 points 4 months ago

Of course she was. Putting your car into reverse and letting it back fully into a pond without braking when you actually meant to put it in drive is not something an unimpaired driver does.

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 35 points 4 months ago

Don’t be so sure. I have seen people, rarely, actually be that incredibly stupid.

But, yes, it most often means they are impaired.

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 4 points 4 months ago

One could argue that a room temperature IQ constitutes enough an impairment for driving.

[-] skeptomatic@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If Celsius, then yes.
Oh, and if Fahrenheit, then maybe.
If Kelvin, lend me your DeLorean time machine.

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[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 21 points 4 months ago

Eh, not defending a drunk driver but there's more to this:

  • the Tesla gear interface is a touchscreen where there's no "feel" for which gear you've selected if you fatfinger it.
  • many folks, sober or drunk, when they get the car moving in an unexpected way reflexively stamp down on the pedal their foot is currently on. This could happen to you. You are not immune.

So if you are in the wrong gear, then panic stomp the pedal, you can absolutely find yourself speeding in the wrong direction.

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago

the Tesla gear interface is a touchscreen

Because of course it is... Jesus fucking Christ, of all the things to remove all tactile feedback from...

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[-] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Maybe the machine knew where she was going.

For those that don't know where they're going:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOW_kPzY_JY

[-] gnate@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The gear selection method in those is non-intuitive. Doesn't alter your conclusions, just an unfortunate and unsafe design choice.

Edit: replaced wrong words

[-] cynar@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Adrenaline does weird things to your brain, when controlling a car. When startled, we default to getting low and stable. That's good when standing, however, it putting your feet flat on the ground is extremely bad when in the driver's seat.

I've actually witnessed this in action. A slip resulted in 2 cars written off, 1 pushed through several gardens. I can easily see someone doing something similar, with a Tesla. Alcohol would just amplify the effect.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 40 points 4 months ago

Not just drunk, 3x the limit drunk.

[-] Retrograde@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Which is probably like 6 drinks in most states

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[-] Tolstoshev@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The only natural predator of billionaires is addiction.

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 25 points 4 months ago
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[-] FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

She was already in the "probably had it coming" category but this just makes it moreso.

Drinking and driving is the same as making a decision to maim or murder others, in my opinion.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

A funny part of this whole thing that isn't discussed... Why isn't the "intelligent robot car" equipped with anything to stop you from doing any of the shit that led to this? Fucking snake oil bullshit.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

You really don't want an automated system to have complete, unbreakable control over a scenario. You always want the option for a human to manually take control, because automation isn't foolproof, especially in edge cases.

However, they probably should have a breathalyzer that prevents you from taking manual control if you're so impaired that the automated system is probably safer than your drunken judgement.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

You're missing the point, I didn't say full autonomous control. There are thousands of intermediate steps that could be involved - from escalating light/audio warnings, to auto lowering of the Windows or popping doors slightly to relieve pressure when significant water is sensed within car's internals for a sustained period of time to maybe even a temp limit of a vehicle speed/control while it's moving under a certain speed towards a sensed danger and not on a road/highway.

The bigger point is that musk snake oil cars are sold with the vapor of "smart" and this did nothing smart to help save this woman's life, in fact it sealed her into her avoidable death due to poor design and profound lack of several basic and easy to implement potential "smart" features that could have attempted to warn or intervene.

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[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 13 points 4 months ago

How can you be a billionaire CEO and don't have a driver? The CEO of a company I used to work for, cannot contractually drive by itself and had a couple of drivers 24/7 working for him, and he didn't even was a billionaire.

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Some people like to drive, some people hate driving.

[-] Kolrami@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago
[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 7 points 4 months ago

Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I race, but you people commute and that's insane.

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to get stuck in traffic or behind someone going 5 under when you regularly go 155+mph through turns?

He is probably saving himself the headache of felonious speeding tickets and us from his road rage.

[-] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 5 points 4 months ago

I would prefer driving in most situation regardless I'm a CEO or not. Probably that's why I'm not a CEO.....

That said, she could well hire a driver service for that, a taxi or even just call a Uber.

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[-] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Oh no. Next!

[-] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago
[-] SarcasticMan@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Smell that Bill? Smells like someone died.

[-] thesmokingman@programming.dev 12 points 4 months ago

What about a death from a drunk driver is an “unfortunate accident?” It’s not an accident, first of all, because you have to intentionally choose to break the law and operate heavy machinery while blitzed. Second of all it’s not unfortunate it’s fucking preventable because you have to intentionally choose to the break the law and operate heavy machinery while sloshed. I’d even go so far as to say it was fortunate because the drunk driver killed themself instead of someone else which a huge consequence that has led to it being against the law to operate heavy machinery while fucking hammered.

“Gee we’re sorry this person did the thing we tell you not to do from before you start driving it’s so unfortunate they made an intentional choice to endanger the life of anyone around them including themself this very bad decision we tell you not to make was clearly an accident”

[-] QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Is it illegal to drive drunk on private property? I was under the impression that it wasn’t.

[-] Schmuppes@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

It's pretty unlikely she got into the vehicle to do donuts on the front lawn. It is pretty likely she was gonna enter public roads while intoxicated behind the wheel, and I applaud her for preventing herself from doing it. Permanently.

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[-] nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 months ago

I'm reminded of a submarine, but I'm not sure why.

[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

One less billionaire in the world is a good thing no matter the cause.

[-] somethingchameleon@lemmy.ca 25 points 4 months ago

Err... her kids are just going to inherit that wealth.

This solves nothing and you shouldn't think it does.

The only way to get rid of the ruling class is to redistribute their wealth. Any other suggestion is just a distraction for useful idiots.

[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I continue to be happy for her

[-] DLSantini@lemmy.ml 8 points 4 months ago

One down...

[-] profdc9@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Memento mori.

[-] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

She did everything wrong that she could have done. I'm going to assume even sober she never read the manual and learned where the manual door releases are.

I am kind of surprised that in 2024 vehicles don't have drop detect sensors but our Roombas do. For 99% of driving of you detect a dropoff, some sort of active brake should be applied...

[-] Death_Equity@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

The false positives with that sort of system would be a major annoyance or dangerous. Steep driveways, rough transitions, potholes, railroad crossings, speed bumps, etc.

A Roomba operates on a nice flat floor and there is no reason it would have to traverse a surface transition of more than 3/8ths of an inch.

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[-] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You hit a pot hole on the highway and now you’re stopping in the middle of it.

That’s why they don’t exist on vehicles, there’s lots of cases where they drop and still need to keep moving, while only a couple where it should stop, and in those cases it’s usually too late and won’t help.

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[-] aniki@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago

After almost freezing to death in Colorado winter with a broken down rental, I make it a point to know how to operate all the locks and ignition manually.

[-] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

It always amazes me how many people hop in a completely foreign car and just start driving. They'd rather try to learn where the windshield wiper control is while barelling down the highway at 80mph instead of while parked in the garage.

I've got pretty strong rental preferences so I'm sure they hate me when I ask for specific vehicles.

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this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
259 points (97.4% liked)

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