In 2021 the Menlo Park politicians voted into the budget Ford, Chevy and Tesla electric cars. Specifically, three Tesla were assigned to their police department.

…the police department will initiate a $350,000 pilot program to test three Tesla electric cars…

Now they say the Tesla are unfit for purpose and unsafe.

…autopilot would occasionally interfere with the types of driving necessary during the course of police patrol. Officers relayed in the staff report that “on occasion, the Teslas automatically stop when an officer attempts to pull off to the side of the road to approach vehicles or people.” […] “I am very proud that we tried the Teslas, and not everything works,” said Council member Betsy Nash.

Proud that not everything works? I see an easily avoidable $350K mistake, which doesn’t bring pride to mind. They could have bought electric bicycles and still had a better outcome.

Officers also said because of the vehicle’s makeup, they weren’t really able to be used for off-roading or jumping curbs. When officers pull someone over, the Teslas have automatically stopped instead of continuing to pull behind another car. Doors also close automatically with even a slight incline, Paz’s report says. There have also been issues with the cars remaining unlocked when an officer is near the vehicle but has walked away from it.

The report leaves out a lot of details, while also giving the impression that Tesla was not cooperative at all. Consider Elon Musk getting all the data from police cars, including video streams. And worse, imagine him pressing a button to prevent police using his robots from pursuing someone that Elon Musk wants to protect (e.g. anti-government right-wing extremists), the same way he does with his control over Twitter.

Presumably the Council still are happy with their Ford and Chevy decision made at the same time as the Tesla debacle. The next police car for Menlo Park is reported to be a new Chevy.