A 2023 Tesla Model S was involved in a fatal crash in Henry County, Missouri, when it left the road at approximately 2 AM, collided with multiple trees, overturned, and caught fire, resulting in two deaths. The incident has raised new questions about Tesla’s misnamed driver assistance systems – whether called Autopilot, FSD, or their latest rebranding – and their potential role in unintended acceleration events.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports that a south bound 2023 Tesla Model S was on Missouri 8 [sic] at SW 100 Road (west of Clinton) just before 2 a.m., when the Tesla traveled off the left side of the roadway and struck several trees. The Tesla then overturned and caught fire.
A very typical Tesla tragedy, it
follows a familiar pattern.
For nine consecutive years, Elon Musk has made public promises about preventing such tragedies. Just recently, he boldly claimed there would be no more Tesla crashes starting in 2025 – literally saying “it really just won’t crash” – right before a series of fatal crashes in 2025.
Notice also how Musk has shifted focus of late, attacking the U.S. government as a dog that needs “efficiency” (DOG-E). The irony is clear: after using highly defective vehicles to capitalize on government credits and subsidies, while falling far below baselines of safety, he’s now seeking to directly access taxpayer money as his personal slush fund.
Without the pretense of being a car manufacturer, just transferring federal funds into his pockets without any other steps, he no longer needs to address the mounting death toll from Tesla’s dangerously flawed technology.
Two more people died in a Tesla, among an alarming rise in deaths in a Tesla, that is true. This crash pattern of vehicle departure from road followed by collision and fire mirrors numerous documented cases where Tesla’s autonomous systems were later confirmed to be involved. While the specific cause may still be under investigation, the similarity to known failure modes raises immediate safety concerns and shouldn’t be downplayed.
Tesla has a track record of restricting crash data access and settling cases out of court, which means safety investigations are in danger of corruption. Given the documented pattern of similar crashes and Tesla’s history of downplaying safety issues, this incident warrants immediate scrutiny from federal investigators.
Waiting for absolute proof of system failure, or waiting for Tesla to damage or destroy evidence, before raising alarms puts more lives at risk. The public deserves to know about potential safety issues, especially given Tesla’s demonstrated pattern of self-serving public harm behavior in similar cases.
As someone who knew these boys personally, I’m deeply concerned. Does this crash fit what we know about Tesla? What if it had crashed them into a home while people were sleeping? I know in the past Tesla tried to have us quickly dismiss any system involvement, but our duty to our small community demands we examine this more thoroughly. We’ve seen too many Tesla in the news with similar characteristics where early dismissals of autonomous system involvement were later proven wrong. And settlements over and over may make some next of kin rich, but it doesn’t give us the data we need to save the next son or daughter from harm.
This is not statistics, although I appreciate you have to do what you do. These boys were our community. Each time we accept fault from Tesla’s perspective, because they hide the data from us and maybe even change it to make themselves look good, we risk more lives. Tesla’s pattern of restricting crash data and pushing early narratives on social media about driver fault concerns me the most. It’s like they weaponize defamation of drivers using a magic ball nobody can see into but they swear is not being manipulated by them.
I may have known the driver, and that’s exactly why I want every aspect investigated – including known autopilot risks. We may be rural simple folk but that doesn’t mean we deserve anything less than actual truth, instead of more big city Texas corporate lies.
Sir, your analysis matches my estimation of established threat patterns. Twenty years of highway patrol experience tells me Tesla often tries to deflect by demanding absolute proof of autonomous system involvement in individual cases. But that approach deliberately ignores documented failure modes and risks we see in real tragedy and families grieving. The death of these two people deserves more. I hope we finally will examine Tesla in context of similar crashes and known system behaviors, not dismissed or isolated. It’s past time to be looking at patterns and raising warnings before absolute confirmation, especially given Elon Musk’s cruel strategy of restricting crash data access and preventing us from doing our job to protect the public.
A 2023 Tesla model? Was the town dealer all out of Ford Pintos? Luckily they didn’t hurt even more people. If we can sue a bar for failing to cut off people who look drunk on whiskey, because they didn’t prevent a crash, why can’t we sue a dealer for selling a Tesla to people who look drunk on Musk?
Look into the Handelsblatt report. The Tesla Files leak show more than 2,400 reports of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) from 2015 until March 2022 in the 100GB data dump (1,388 PDF documents, 1,015 Excel spreadsheets, and 213 Powerpoint presentations). Among documented incidents, there are at least three cases showing a pattern of extreme acceleration to speeds over 100 mph: one reaching 183 kph (113.7 mph) in Saratoga before running a red light, and then a much later one reaching approximately 100 mph within two city blocks in San Francisco, where both resulted in horrible crashes. Also note there might be something specific about the Model S design or systems that explains why it has high SUA. Definitely worth more research, looking at a 2AM crash on a curve like this that has some of the symptoms of dangerous design flaws:
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-dismisses-chinese-investigation-on-sua-cases-by-recalling-1104622-bevs-214888.html
Tesla is in a massive coverup: “Over the last four years, Tesla has sued at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures. ”
https://apnews.com/article/tesla-china-lawsuits-musk-investigation-58b10ccace488784fcc63646ab78b410
We’ve all seen this rodeo before:
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-07-14/elon-musk-said-no-self-driving-tesla-had-ever-crashed
“Musk said not one self-driving Tesla had ever crashed. By then, regulators already knew of 8…
Troy, Mo.: A Tesla was turning through a curve when ‘suddenly, about 40% of the way through the turn, the Model Y straightened the wheel and crossed over the center line into the direct path of the oncoming vehicle. When I attempted to pull the vehicle back into my lane, I lost control and skidded off into a ditch and through the woods, causing significant damage to the vehicle.'”