Sad story from a combat veteran.
“I’m a former Green Beret,” Bova said, referring to the U.S. Army Special Forces. “[Tesla Autopilot] was probably the second-most traumatic thing I’ve gone through other than being in combat.”
First, Special Forces training apparently needs to work on counter-intelligence. No soldier, especially a Green Beret, ought to be willingly strapping themselves into anything branded Tesla.
Second, and perhaps still on that note, “other than combat” misses the point. A robot made by Tesla that attempts to kill an American soldier IS COMBAT if not domestic terrorism.
The 2016 Tesla killing of Josh Brown, ex-Navy SEAL, should have drawn a very bright line in society. The 2018 deaths from Tesla AI were unnecessary and gratuitous, and it’s only gotten worse since (unlike every other car manufacturer combined).
We knew back then, as we know from courts now, that Tesla Autopilot was a dangerous failure intentionally over-promoted to squeeze customers for money before throwing their lives away.
Surely by 2018 there could have been a simple and logical national security mandate: no military in Tesla, no Tesla in military.
Alas, Bova was somehow fooled into dangerous advanced fee fraud of Tesla cars and insurance, and is lucky to still be alive. Except, the toxic management culture of Tesla is now trying hard to make him unlucky.
His ordeal isn’t over. Tesla Insurance, launched in 2019 by the electric-car company, has promised policyholders “vastly better” service than rivals, as Tesla chief Elon Musk put it in April 2022. Musk also said he aimed to offer “same-day” collision repairs. But Bova says he has been battling the insurer ever since the crash.
He said he waited seven months for payment on the totaled vehicle and still hasn’t been compensated for about $50,000 in medical expenses. That required a call to the automaker’s product liability department because the crash involved Autopilot, he was told. He waited on hold for hours and got hung up on four times, he said. When someone finally answered, the person promised another callback in two weeks. Four months later, he’s still waiting.
The article goes on to point out that Tesla insurance is truly dysfunctional, untrustworthy and even cruel.
Elon Musk, like always, quickly delivered the worst possible product in the industry while promising investors a giant fantasy. The life and death consequences of his lies have been real.
Will Bova’s lament be heard? Will the military finally ban Tesla to prevent another story like his? Will the Tesla robots be classified as threats to national security?