OT: Gas shortage

I remember Eletrolux vacuums being well over $1000, 50 years ago.

The CT48 works really well the saw, sanders, and routers. SCMSs are hopeless. I have three cheap BORG vacs (garage, shop, and drywall dust) for everything else.

Don't be so sure about that. I've been in a similar accident. Even though the airbags went off and the driver (me) uninjured, the steering wheel was pretty well bent towards the dash (way towards). If you're holding onto the steering wheel you, and your arms, go forward to meet the airbag. The hands are still gripping the steering wheel, so it takes a beating. Steering wheels are designed to deform and the columns collapse for exactly this reason. Airbags help but only keep you in the vehicle and your torso away from other solid objects. The arms aren't restrained at all. Take a look at a crash dummy test sometime. It's ugly.

I posted this the last time you said that the crash was at 30 MPH:

This is dated May 12, 2021:

I'm not sure what Mr. Herman means by "high speed", but I'm speculating that it was more than 30 MPH.

Even you said "Seems to me a 30 mph crash should not have been so devastating."

Here's the headline from your link, dated April 19, 2021:

"A driverless Tesla crashed and burned for four hours, police said, killing two passengers in Texas"

Here's another headline from 2 days later:

"Tesla Fire in Texas Crash Was Not How It Was Reported, Says Fire Chief"

The CT and the Kapex work really well, maybe better then the track saw.

The crash site was 800 feet from his home.

Well, that supports everything I've said about the Tesla steering wheel.

It is very possible that it was physically deformed by the driver and then thermotically deformed by the fire. I further submit that those 2 different types of deformations will be detectable by the investigators.

(I'm glad you didn't get hurt)

It states that a security camera recorded the owner getting into the driver's seat shortly before the crash. That is why I am speculating that the doctor was driving at the time of the crash and was knocked into the back seat on impact.

As I said in my earlier post, the following is why I don't think the doctor was letting the car drive itself and was in fact knocked into the back seat during the crash. Remember, the security camera captured him getting into the driver's seat and the popo said the crash occurred at high speed. We also have Tesla's VP of engineering stating that the steering wheel was deformed, and as K has verified via his personal experience, the steering wheel can be deformed by the driver during a crash.

"So, in about 1/10th of a mile, the driver got the car up to a high speed, engaged the cruise control and then moved into the back seat. That sure is some fancy footwork. ;-)

and...

"The NTSB report said the 2019 Model S went off the road on a curve, drove over a curb, hit a drainage culvert, a raised manhole and a tree."

Now, it doesn't specifically say that the vehicle ever got airborne, but I lost a dear friend when his truck went off a road and hit a drainage culvert. The resulting "bounce" resulted in my friend being ejected through the open window. Perhaps the good doctor was bounced into the back seat due to driving at a high speed over a curb, into a drainage culvert, over a raised manhole and into a tree.

That's a lot of jostling."

Fuel efficiency. On a modern car[*] it's (IIRC) 3% of drag caused by just side mirrors.

I expect I could get used to it. It would help with my narrow garage, too. I think I have 5 inches to spare with my current car, and have at some point hit the side and needed to replaced side mirrors on all other cars I've owned.

If you can't refocus at all, that makes me concerned being on the road with you driving.

Elijah

------ [*] That's just cars, not trucks / pickups / SUVs / etc.

I have this handy switch on the drivers door that folds the mirrors back when heading into the narrow garage.

That said, I'd have no problems with a well done vision system replacing the side mirrors, I wonder if a full width three-inch tall stripe across the top of the windshield that provided a 240 degree or so view of the rear all the time would be too distracting.

Except that comment made was referring to the rearview mirror, not the sideview mirrors.

Studies have shown that the drag caused by the rearview mirror is significantly less than 3%.

Hmmmm. the studies ere probably funded with a $20 million government grant too.

Maybe he put it in ludicrous mode, then went plaid.

The torque available to accelerate in a Tesla is way different than a old fashion auto.

Not sure if Musk was a fan of Space Balls, but seems somewhere I saw that the high sport mode was title after the movies line.

I am going with no seat belts and the occupants ended in the back.

I don't believe that's been studied, but I will believe that result.

Completely replacing the center rearview mirror is probably a bad idea. Supplementing it with a camera is good. I back into my garage (to drive out forward) and it is 100 times easier with the backup camera. That said, I'd not want to use that camera, with those optics, for looking at things further than 20 feet, nor would I trust that it remains unobstructed in all weather conditions (particularly snow).

In vehicles that have traditionally lacked a center rearview mirror, replacing it with a camera of some sort is a clear win. I first started to notice garbage trucks with such about fifteen years ago.

Elijah

------ doesn't know if the garbage trucks only had them active in reverse

Not buying that one. It's still a lousy way to do a "mirror".

There is not getting "used to it", just as there is no "getting used to" being blind. I suspect you're a young un or haven't actually used one of these things. Physics is physics.

Have you ever heard of eyeglasses? Yep, you must be a kid.

Just wait a few years. At fifty I found I couldn't see anymore. Cheaters helped for maybe a year, then right to bifocals and immediately after that to progressive lenses. Getting old is a bitch and presbyopia is only a small part of the bargain.

...and no, I can't change focus, along with millions of other drivers.

More like $100M/%

Makes better numbers.

Except the part about telling the difference after that fire.

The airbags just may have saved my life. I'm on anticoagulants and a good bump to the head isn't healthy.

I was really sore the next day but noting like when I was in a full speed rear-ender on an I94 in Minneapolis in my brother's bug. That time the steering wheel was fully bent the other way.

His home or where he rests?

Could be but the momentum suggests otherwise. With no seatbelts, I'd expect that the hither probability would be that they would be ejected, perhaps through the windscreen or even the top as the car disintegrated.