Oh No! First Crash of a Tesla!

Published on July 29th, 2008

WIRED By Keith Barry, July 28, 2008

Just hours after taking delivery of his brand new electric supercar, the unnamed owner of Tesla #6 has found himself back at the Menlo Park dealership awaiting news from his insurance company. Dane Golden reports that his friend Alex Volkov stumbled upon the first crash of a privately owned Tesla. At 6PM on Friday afternoon, the Jet Black beauty found itself unceremoniously wedged in front of an early ‘90s Camry and beneath a 2000s C-Class at the corner of Geary Boulevard and Gough Street in San Francisco.

More photos at WIRED.

That’s got to be one very unhappy Tesla owner!

Found by oz4me on Cage Match.

21 users responded in " Oh No! First Crash of a Tesla! "

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# 1 comhcinc said, on July 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am

ha!

# 2 sirfelix said, on July 29th, 2008 at 11:01 am

He was probably driving like an idiot, but in his defense, it can be difficult to know your speed in an electric car due to lack of audio/vibration feedback.

# 3 n74jw said, on July 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am

Ha ha ha!!! From 0-Crash in 3 seconds.

# 4 John C Dvorak said, on July 29th, 2008 at 11:17 am

It seems someone behind him rear-ended the Tesla and slammed it into the Benz.

# 5 trevan said, on July 29th, 2008 at 11:59 am

@sirfelix

Guessing by the damage to the rear bumper and the folded hood on the trailing Camry, the Tesla took the brunt of a rear ending.

Something for engineers to consider: Without the idle-roll of a gas engine, you wouldn’t be on the brakes at a stop light.

[My hybrid has "idle creep" when the gasoline engine isn't running. - ed.]

# 6 Misanthropic Scott said, on July 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

According to Volkov, eyewitnesses to the crash told him the Roadster had gone “unnoticed” because of its low profile and silent power train. “There was extensive recording, switching between police officers to compare notes – writing, writing, writing, more than I’ve seen in an average accident, especially because they couldn’t believe the statements. They were trying to establish the fact of the car’s unnoticeability.”

Um … if the Camry rammed the Tesla from behind, how would the Tesla have gone unnoticed? If that’s not the case and the Tesla hit the Merc from behind without first being rammed, are they claiming the Tesla went unnoticed by the Tesla driver?

Silly comment from that article, IMHO.

I doubt the silence of the Tesla had anything to do with this.

# 7 The Monster's Lawyer said, on July 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

@2 – you’re right. They should install a vibrator so the driver knows he’s moving.

# 8 whack job said, on July 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

please…please…was it jason calacanis

# 9 GigG said, on July 29th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

From TFA:

“…Volkov speculated the accident was the fault of the Tesla’s driver because eyewitnesses told him the Tesla’s driver was trying to “go bumper to bumper between the cars,…”

# 10 Cap'nKangaroo said, on July 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

#8 maybe calacanis was distracted listening to an audible book

# 11 Angel H. Wong said, on July 29th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Gay car.

# 12 chuck said, on July 29th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

Most cars have a simple device on the dash to tell you what speed you’re going. Its usually called the speedometer.

After looking at the photos in the article – if he was rear-ended, it’s remarkable how little damage to the rear of the car occurred.

# 13 deowll said, on July 29th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

My insurance wouldn’t cover that. How much would insurance for a car like that cost?

# 14 OmegaMan said, on July 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

#13 -> More, now that, if this is car #6, then roughly 20% of cars on the road have been involved in accidents. Not a good ratio for a $100K car.

# 15 hhopper said, on July 29th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

#12 – Yeah, check out the front of the Camry.

# 16 Glenn E. said, on July 29th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

Owner #6?!! So Patrick McGoohan owns it? I thought he was loyal to his Lotus 7. Well, you either get that or you don’t.

The only reason the cops had any difficult figuring out who was to blame, is that they probably had to clear it with the other major automakers. Can’t blame the Camry, too much legal representation. The Tesla? Just some experimental model, right? Gotta be its weird braking system. Can’t be the guy on his cellphone in the Camry, didn’t notice it.

# 17 OmegaMan said, on July 30th, 2008 at 3:14 am

The hazardous team had to be called out to clean up all those electrons that spilled from the Tesla!

# 18 the answer said, on July 30th, 2008 at 4:57 am

Environmentalists are getting vicious against us gas drivers.

# 19 Mr. Fusion said, on July 30th, 2008 at 5:24 am

Don’t ya just hate it when that happens?

# 20 JimD said, on July 30th, 2008 at 10:09 am

I’m SHOCKED !!! I wonder if the driver was too ???

# 21 quriqrrd said, on December 21st, 2008 at 7:12 am

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