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”.
Smell that Bill? Smells like someone died.
The only natural predator of billionaires is addiction.
From what I understand there was a rather significant window of time between being submerged and the car filling up with water. I am willing to bet she drained whatever she had on her in that timeframe after giving up on the window and her life.
One less billionaire in the world is a good thing no matter the cause.
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.
“She was no angel”
Fuck drunk drivers. Just glad she didn’t kill anyone else.
Bummer Mitch McConnell wasn’t in the trunk.
Oh, I didn’t know he went by his middle name
(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
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…
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.
Well no, obviously there’s a maximum speed. Just like parking sensors have different distance warnings when driving versus parking.
And on a Tesla with so much vision, it should really know the topography.
At speed is when you would need the active breaking…
And great now my car stopped in the parking lot from every speed bump…,
Can you provide a usecase where active breaking from a drop would actually help?
I’d argue for drop that extends across the width of the lane, or both. Couple that with a system that can penetrate heavy rain, and two truck drivers might have lived through a washout of Interstate 88 in Central N a few years back. They didn’t have much of a chance back then.
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.
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.
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.
Also the speeds are much higher so the brakes would never have time to have any effect. But it could maybe help if designed properly for low-speed maneuvers
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.
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_JYAdrenaline 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.
The great selection method in those is non-intuitive. Doesn’t matter your conclusions, just an unfortunate and unsafe design choice.
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.
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…
IIRC you have to swipe the whole screen to change into reverse, so you can’t really do it accidentally
Don’t be so sure. I have seen people, rarely, actually be that incredibly stupid.
But, yes, it most often means they are impaired.
One could argue that a room temperature IQ constitutes enough an impairment for driving.
If Celsius, then yes.
Oh, and if Fahrenheit, then maybe.
If Kelvin, lend me your DeLorean time machine.If that were the case, then we wouldn’t have global warming problem anymore.
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.
Some people like to drive, some people hate driving.
This tracks. Lewis Hamilton hates driving if he’s not racing.
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.
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I race, but you people commute and that’s insane.
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.
…or just buy Uber…
Don’t drive drunk, fam.
I don’t drink, but I realize that getting home after one has been drinking is a legitimate problem that does encourage people to drive drunk.
It’s one thing that I hope that self-driving cars will help address in the long run. If everyone’s got their own electronic chauffeur readily available, it’s lot easier to let them get one home safely.
I’ve been saying my next car will have FSD for… almost a decade now. I have lost hope that what you describe will be a reality for me anytime soon, and with the progress of self-driving in general? Very. Little. Hope.
FYI there’s already a solution: Public transit. I understand the US doesn’t have it but the solution already exists.
I continue to be happy for her
What a coincidence. She dies in a freak accident, conveniently in one of the most corrupt state that is perfect for political cover ups and - out of nowhere - Glitch McConman who had a death grip on democracy for 16 years, who refused to step down even after multiple hang-ups, suddenly decides to retire.
If this doesn’t smell to you, you might already be in a pile of shit
Idk, seems reasonable that a drunk boomer could fatally misuse a piece of tech on accident. Don’t Teslas record everything in/around them? Hard to jump to conclusions when we haven’t seen all the evidence.
Would you be honestly surprised if Musk ordered a hit personally?
In general? Not really, considering how much of an impulsive piss baby he is. On Chao specifically? I have no idea. What’s the motive?
These conspiracy nuts don’t need a motive
Memento mori.
Oh well.
I’m reminded of a submarine, but I’m not sure why.
