Terrifying Crash Demonstrates Tesla's Commitment to Safety

First responders call it a miracle that occupants inside a Tesla Model Y survived a horrific crash.

NBC News

First responders frequently go to Devil's Slide, 20 miles south of San Francisco on Highway 1. It's a scenic but treacherous drive, with the road just a few feet from an edge and a 250-foot drop to the rocky beach below. Unfortunately, fire and ambulance crews were again called to the area on Monday, January 2. But this time it was different.

Brian Pottenger, battalion chief with Cal Fire's Coastside Fire Protection District, said, "We go there all the time for cars over the cliff, and they never live. This was an absolute miracle." He stated, "the damage to the vehicle would indicate that it hit, and then flipped several times," and that is why crews were shocked when they spotted movement inside the wreckage.

Safest Vehicle in the World

The fire department tweeted some horrific images from the scene. But you can make out that the wreckage is a white Tesla Model Y, one of the safest vehicles in the world. Incredibly, all four people inside the Model Y, two adults and two children, a 4-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl survived. The children were unharmed, and the adults suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Sadly, the police have determined the crash was intentional and have arrested the driver, Dharmesh A. Patel, on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse.

Tesla's mission is to "accelerate the advent of sustainable transport vehicles," but it prioritizes safety in its design. The website states: Tesla vehicles are engineered to be the safest in the world. Each one combines powerful onboard technology with an all-electric design to help protect every driver, passenger, and pedestrian on the road.

Commitment to Safety Continues

That's not just rhetoric, as proven in this horrible crash. The Model S, 3, X and Y have received five out of five stars on every test run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including rollover protection. They have also been scored with the lowest overall probability of injury of any vehicle ever tested by the U.S. government's New Car Assessment Program. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has numerous times given Teslas the top safety pick. Most recently, calling the Model 3 the Top Safety Pick of 2022.

Tesla hasn't stopped there. Last year it introduced a Seat Belt System Enhancement. The enhanced onboard camera system detects when a crash is imminent and applies tension to the seatbelt. Regrettably, the seatbelt system hasn't been improved for decades. It only tightens the belt once the vehicle has made an impact.

Tesla's commitment to safety clearly played a significant factor in saving those four lives and has undoubtedly saved thousands of other people from injury and death.

Tesla Is Working With City of Austin to Launch Self Driving Vehicle Fleet

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has been working hard behind the scenes to get its Robotaxi network off the ground. We previously reported that they were in talks with the City of Palo Alto in California. This, combined with potential federal changes from the incoming U.S. Administration means that Tesla is really pushing to make its Robotaxi network a reality in 2025.

Bloomberg now reports that Tesla is in discussions with another city to explore the launch of an autonomous vehicle fleet. This development follows the major announcements made during Tesla’s We, Robot autonomy event in October.

Tesla has been testing the network in San Francisco's Bay Area with its employees and safety drivers, which means that internally, some of the necessary infrastructure is already in place to begin further deployments.

Austin, Texas

Bloomberg reports that Tesla is now in the early stages of the proposal with the city of Austin - the same city that already hosts Giga Texas. Tesla has apparently been in touch with the city’s Autonomous Vehicle Task Force since early spring to work on hashing out the proposal.

Austin already has Waymo and Zoox testing their robotaxi services in the city, so Tesla’s Cybercabs or other Tesla vehicles will be an interesting addition to the offerings already available.

The Proposal

The proposal will likely look at safety regulations, initial offerings by Tesla, liability status, and pilot testing the Robotaxi network throughout Austin before it is publicly rolled out. Another topic of discussion was ensuring that the city’s first responders - Firefighters, Paramedics, and Police - would be trained to interact with the vehicles. Tesla held an event in Austin with first responders on December 5th to do the initial set of training and help establish guidelines for the rollout.

We’re excited to see which of the two cities we know about - Austin or Palo Alto - will take the crown for the first public Robotaxi network.

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Tesla Adds New Long-Awaited Voice Commands

Automobile Propre

While we’ve seen several changes to Tesla’s voice commands, including a new voice and the potential for a Smart Voice Assistant to come soon, we haven’t seen much in the way of new voice commands.

For the first time in a long time, Tesla has added new voice commands as part of the 2024 Holiday Update. These new commands control vehicle features that weren’t accessible before. With all of the changes we’re seeing, including faster responses and better voice recognition, we’d be surprised if Tesla doesn’t show off a completely new system in the first half of 2025.

For now, let’s take a look at the new voice commands. Shout out to @LifeMiddie and our readers for catching these.

HOV Lanes

Command: Turn [On/Off] HOV

High Occupancy Vehicle lanes are generally faster than other lanes. However, the requirements for their use differ from state to state, with many states requiring a minimum number of occupants. The setting is buried under Controls > Navigation > Use HOV Lanes, which makes it annoying to get to for something you may want to turn on and off often. Thankfully, we can now use a voice command.

Toll Routes

Command: Turn [On/Off] Avoid Tolls

Similar to HOV lanes, this command will toggle the “Avoid Tolls” navigation feature on or off as requested.

We’re actually hoping this feature gets renamed - a double negative “Turn Off Avoid Tolls” to be able to use toll routes in navigation is a bit confusing. Perhaps “Avoid Tolls/Don’t Avoid Tolls” would be a better voice command.

Headlights

Command: Turn [On/Off] Headlights

This is a simple command that people have been asking for ages. We’re glad to see it finally arrive, and it's pretty helpful, especially when you’re parked or want to turn on your headlights in the rain.

Keep in mind that using Turn on headlights will actually switch your headlights to On instead of Auto, so you may need to move them back to Auto later.

Fog Lights

Command: Turn [On/Off] Fog Lights

This command requires your vehicle to be equipped with fog lights. This command does nothing for newer vehicles that include integrated fog lights, like the Cybertruck and Model 3 Highland.

For vehicles equipped with fog lights, it will turn on or off your fog lights as requested. It's a nice addition, as fog lights aren’t always necessary. This will also turn off your rear fog lights for the Model S and Model X.

A couple of other existing voice commands that are often useful are ‘navigate to X’ or ‘navigate home.’ You can also use voice commands to turn on voice guidance on or off by saying, turn off voice guidance. We have a list of the Top 10 Most Useful Voice Commands that may also be useful.

If you find any additional new voice commands, let us know here on our forums or on social media. You can also check out our list of all known Tesla voice commands.

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