Featured Teslas crash more than gas-powered cars—Here’s why

it was funny how cramer kept pushing into avenues he had no intention of going, but he kept acquiescing.
i always get the feeling that cramer and friends make big stock purchase or sales just before these interviews

 

That's a good explanation of almost all TV news...

As someone who spends many, many hours every day keeping up on the news if I click on a link to learn more about something and its a video of a TV news broadcast I immediately leave the site before watching and search for an article in text instead so I can skim through it and get to the details as quickly as possible. TV news is so dumbed down and lacking in detail, it's mostly worthless if you're a critical thinker...

 

IMHO, they did not try a small scale, prototype deployment say in Las Vegas. Hertz could have seen the same problems for a lot less. With lessons learned, correct and deploy over larger, interesting areas.

Personally, I understand they are reducing the scale of the EV inventory, not ending the experiment. They may find a 'limping' EV maker who will do a deal that solves the major Hertz problems. It is unlikely to be Tesla.

Bob Wilson

 

Yep... Their marketing department wanted to make a big splash as the "leader" in EV rental cars before their competitors did and I suspect their competitors beat them on this real good by being more modest about how EVs can slowly integrate into their fleet.

 

I don't think hertz really got burned here. It looks like of their 420,000 vehicles about 11% were teslas. They then decided to get rid of around half of the teslas, leaving them still with over 6% of the fleet. The burn is keeping the unlimited miles when the vehicles were being used for side gigs. There should be a disclaimer that they have mile limits and surcharges if they are being used for ride shares.

 

Good point... That's standard on all hybrid and EV warranties... If you're using the vehicle for commercial purposes, you don't get the same coverage as a regular car owner. Of course people using a car for stuff like that is a lot harder to prove than people who use their home for commercial stuff like Airbnb and auto repair.

 

I did not see the answer as to why drivers of Teslas crash more.
Maybe I am missing the answer.

I speculate the reason is braking distances and/ or understeer.

 

The answer is, there is no indication they do.

The article is sorely lacking any data to indicate this.

One part of the article actually contradicts that idea:

Teslas and EVs have a lot more power than ICE vehicles. What I would like to see is a comparison of accident rates of EVs with similar performance ICE sport cars.

The article also notes that when people switch from ICE to an EV accident rates go up. That also happens when people switch to any new vehicle. They mention the increase is greater switching to an EV. They don’t provide the needed info about how much greater.

 

Embarrassment. They assumed handling an EV rental fleet would be just like their ICE fleet. It seems to be mostly because of how Tesla operates. They didn't give Hertz a discount for a large order, which makes depreciation hurt more on their accounting. Then parts for Teslas simply aren't as readily available. That could be true of other EVs with their production numbers, but they also share some parts with ICE models. Third party suppliers are also an option.

The EVs were popular with drivers through their rideshare program. Those were the ones tending to cause more damage. As I said elsewhere, we have no idea what the damage is; it could be from fares wrecking the interior.

The avoid that damage Hertz moved the EVs to the leisure fleet; what vacationers use. That group not wanting to deal with charging on the vacay, were less likely to rent them.

"Drivers also tend to crash somewhat more when switching to gas-powered vehicles, too, but the increase is more pronounced with EVs." - OP article

Being unfamiliar with a new to them car, increases the risk of the driver getting into trouble. The instant torque and high power of EVs is just additional modifier to that. They'd probably see similar numbers if they had looked at ICE sports cars.

 

Fast cars, especially rented, more accidents. I think it has little to do with what brand except some brands attract fast drivers. Tesla keeps boasting about 0-60, faster must be better. You keep on with your test drive showing the 5 is different and doesn’t creep forward in drive at a stop sign. Assuming level road of course not on a hill.

 

when i did my tesla test drive, i was nervous. but it was just like any other car except one pedal driving. (they probably had it set to turtle mode) but i drove it like a prius, so it didn't matter what mode it was in, or how much torque it had.
rentals often attract a different customer.

 

You have nailed it here, IMO. I don’t see anything in an EV that would suggest it be any more of a risk of a crash compared to a comparable ICE vehicle, particularly with all the safety tech on modern vehicles. This would especially apply with EVs since they usually have the most advanced tech, especially Tesla. This would suggest that the cause has to be related to irresponsible drivers, which is not all that surprising if we are talking about a a rental driver with walk-away type insurance. If you know you can walk away unscathed (financially, anyway), what would discourage someone from not “having fun”? I am sure if they exclude rentals from the equation, it would be a much different story. Similarly, I wonder if other rental of other performance vehicles suggest the same?

Myself, I am fascinated with all the protections afforded by Safety Sense 3.0 in my Prime, as this is LIGHT YEARS ahead of my Gen 3, which only had PCS and radar cruise. It basically protects you from “accidents” - meaning minor incidents related to your own momentary inattention - such as drifting over a line because you are drowsy, or being a moment late to brake because of a distraction, etc. The only way you can really crash this car is if you are being intentionally aggressive or dangerous, or of course if someone hits you. Personally, I leave all the safety tech on and it rarely nags me as I generally drive responsibly. I wasn’t sure about the driver monitor initially, but have grown to appreciate it as it is a nice safety blanket for when I am doing a long road trip and start to feel drowsy, it will make sure I don’t nod off or doing those slow blinks (not that this has ever happened, but we are all getting older and overworked and have had times of fighting fatigue in long drives…. )

 

I do see a relationship between heavy acceleration and propensity to get into accidents.

I mainly see this on ice and snow. AWD vehicles accelerate more quickly than 2WD vehicles. On one particularly slick day I counted a total of 14 vehicles that had slid of the road (most had flipped over) and I swear that every single one of them was AWD or 4WD. Why didn't any 2WD slide off the road? In my 52hp FWD 1985 VW Golf N/A diesel I could spin the wheels on that icy road in 5th gear (manual transmission) just by stomping on the accelerator.

 

Beside accelerating on slippery surfaces, the only thing
AWD/4WD do better is getting out of a ditch. Traction controls now is awesome at keeping a car on the road if not abused.

 

... provided it wasn't the 4/AWD that got one into the ditch in the first place.

 

Yep... #1 rule of winter driving is only driving as fast as the available traction on the road allows. Did you see these Firefighters in their 50K pound truck yet? He went too fast on ice but gets an A+ for damaging nothing more than a mailbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W_bIx_1MSA

 

Appears to have crunched a blue passenger car in a driveway too.

 

Two national TV news broadcasts last night, with video from two different directions, mentioned hitting that car and included the very loud crunch noise of the impact.

So no A+. But at least it appeared still able to deal with the 911 call, with or without changing underwear.


P.S. This angle shows the car strike:

 

Yeah, that big thunk you heard is that poor car getting pushed away. There is another view that shows it.

 

I thought that at first too... But if you search on youtube there's a different camera angle that shows the object that made the crashing sound is a mailbox.