Boryana Straubel killed in Nevada by car crossing the center line and hitting her head on while she was in the bike lane…mind-boggling.
Would have maybe not happened if it had been a Tesla?
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Maybe, maybe not. 4 separate incidents of Tesla in past couple of days, including one Tesla Plaid that started on fire, trapped its occupant who happened to be an institutional Tesla investor, and who now sounds like he has done a complete 180 on the brand. 3 of the 4 incidents (not the fire) could have been avoided if a human was at the wheel
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https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1410844490328326147/photo/1
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https://twitter.com/tracer_bull_et/status/1411178523356762113/photo/2
I suspect we are going to trade the type of catastrophes that occur for quite a while + the butterfly effects that exist that we can’t possibly even begin to understand. Never mind the possibility that someone hacks FSD and takes aim at cyclists/pedestrians etc. Of course the more we applaud Musk and his antics the less likely competitors like Waymo are to exist.
Tesla cars clearly aren’t perfect. But by comparison, how many ICE vehicles are involved in accidents or catch fire? (not saying they don’t need to investigate that recent apparent spontaneous combustion). I’d venture to say that a high majority of accidents that involve drivers using autopilot are related to driver neglect. Drivers are fully responsible for controlling the car at all times, even when autopilot is engaged.
But, more importantly, why this tragedy has to immediately degenerate into a commentary on Tesla is beyond me. Tragic, needless loss of life. Having lost a very important person in my life to a very similar event, I can empathize what her family and friends are going through. It’s awful.
There’s two separate issues: Tesla cars themselves are much safer than an average car (not much safer than a comparable car), but … Tesla markets it’s cars as self driving, which they are not, so accidents ensue.
People turn on Tesla and Musk when the opportunity arises because of their and his behaviour.
The typical BS lawsuits when ever they or he is criticised to suppress anything that isn’t positive sycophantic hype, the way he thinks it’s OK to publicly call someone a paedo, etc etc.
Musk said in an interview that he saw a local news report about a driver basically falling asleep behind the wheel and killing a cyclist in California. That’s when he decided “we need to do auto pilot. Now.â€
Just a reply to this thread. It is a real bummer that she died this way.
The discussion on this thread about Tesla as a company etc, is not correlated with her just being a cyclist out riding and killed. Can we just focus on our fellow cyclist? It is irrelevant that she was an executive, a bike courier, a pro bike racer. She was just another helpless cyclist killed on the road.
A devastating tragedy. Horrific for her family and friends. I live in Reno, I ride the Washoe Loop with regularity. It’s a favorite for our cycling community. We live in a beautiful area for cycling that is also growing fast and increasingly busy on those roads. This news just shook me up. Prayers to her family.
Agreed
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Living in a hub for multiple self-driving vehicle projects, I can tell you they get into accidents all the time.
Anyone have any updates? Looks like this happened on June 21. 
This is why my wife only rides on Zwift except for race day, and I’m leaning towards going back that way myself…I have a right to be on the road, but distracted driving (whatever form that takes) is getting worse…
Yikes! In a bike lane no less.
Stories like this is why I absolutely hate riding on the road these days. I ride on the road just enough to not lose the feel when getting ready for a race but that’s it. I am nice and comfy at home on my trainer. Its a shame it has come to that but damn people these days care more about Twitter then actually driving the car.
Anyone have any updates? Looks like this happened on June 21.
This is why my wife only rides on Zwift except for race day, and I’m leaning towards going back that way myself…I have a right to be on the road, but distracted driving (whatever form that takes) is getting worse…
I rarely ride on the road anymore. When I do ,I pick my times and routes carefully. She was in a bike line on the opposite side so that just makes it that much scarier.
This is another reason why I ride more gravel than anything else. Even when there are cars on gravel they’re rarely going fast.
Just a reply to this thread. It is a real bummer that she died this way.
The discussion on this thread about Tesla as a company etc, is not correlated with her just being a cyclist out ridding and killed. Can we just focus on our fellow cyclist? It is irrelevant that she was an executive, a bike courier, a pro bike racer. She was just another helpless cyclist killed on the road.
Of course it is a terrible tragedy and my sincerest condolences to the family. I don’t mean to disregard that, just replying directly to the question by the OP.
Stories like this is why I absolutely hate riding on the road these days. I ride on the road just enough to not lose the feel when getting ready for a race but that’s it. I am nice and comfy at home on my trainer. Its a shame it has come to that but damn people these days care more about Twitter then actually driving the car.
I agree. I’m almost exclusively TrainerRoad inside workouts, and leading up to race day I’ll try to go outside 1-2x a week just to sharpen up actual riding. But aside from that, I’d rather stay inside, have my fans and cold drinks handy, not have to worry about packing spare tubes, etc. And of course, not getting run down by a driver.
Tesla cars clearly aren’t perfect. But by comparison, how many ICE vehicles are involved in accidents or catch fire? (not saying they don’t need to investigate that recent apparent spontaneous combustion). I’d venture to say that a high majority of accidents that involve drivers using autopilot are related to driver neglect. Drivers are fully responsible for controlling the car at all times, even when autopilot is engaged.
But, more importantly, why this tragedy has to immediately degenerate into a commentary on Tesla is beyond me. Tragic, needless loss of life. Having lost a very important person in my life to a very similar event, I can empathize what her family and friends are going through. It’s awful.
I found that worth mentioning for the fact Tesla started implementing driver-assist (not self-driving) systems into the industry based at least partially on these kind of incidents.
Many higher end car manufacturers now offer driver assist systems such as lane deviation or collision avoidance. Another beneficial one is eye/head monitoring.
Tesla partially has to be given credit for starting this and driving development of new safety features.
I am not supporting self-driving and the current marketing Tesla is doing on this.
We can’t get to safe self-driving in a reasonable time frame.
I find it mostly very sad, that we are moving so slow in implementing driver control features, just because we think we need to reach self-driving first.
While in the meantime, we could save many lives by implementing the simple safety measures mentioned above in All new cars.
Stories like this is why I absolutely hate riding on the road these days. I ride on the road just enough to not lose the feel when getting ready for a race but that’s it. I am nice and comfy at home on my trainer. Its a shame it has come to that but damn people these days care more about Twitter then actually driving the car.
I agree. I’m almost exclusively TrainerRoad inside workouts, and leading up to race day I’ll try to go outside 1-2x a week just to sharpen up actual riding. But aside from that, I’d rather stay inside, have my fans and cold drinks handy, not have to worry about packing spare tubes, etc. And of course, not getting run down by a driver.
I am not sure how this incident can be used (again) to lecture those riding outside, or implying they are just thoughtless and careless.
And advocating giving up freedoms and quality of life, just because it’s the path of least resistance (I am generalizing here, because of course inner city dwellers and those with dependents may have no free choice).
With that off my chest, I also think it is foolish to assume that you gain the knowledge and skills to operate your bicycle safely in a real world environment by a ‘sharpen-up ride‘.
It requires training and practice to get proficient.
I am not surprised seeing more and more cyclists taking stupid risks or fumbling around when riding outside. Both ‘shaping-up’ and in a race.
I do happen to have met the victim in person and it shakes me up thinking about how she died.
But I would ride that road without fear and remember how happy she was when riding outside.
tragic
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In terms of bike handing skills and “sharpen up ride/s” where I live in Canada aside from a few hardcore who ride thru the snow (I used to be one of them, i don’t find it interesting anymore), most of us spend several months off the road. Things that were instinct last fall, become mechanical decision making mental and physical obstacles that the brain actively has to solve while moving at least for several rides before that connection between the moving imagery going to the brain and how the legs core and arms feel the motion of the bike and correct it takes some time. I find it best that in the lead up to the first few outdoor rides to get on the rollers. Also I notced that the winters that I do a lot of skiing with fast technical downhills the tranfer back to bike outdoors is smooth (same thing in terms of core and legs interacting with the ground).
I have had a driver veer across the road and hit me head on. I did have an instinct of what was about to happen as he (in the van) started closing the gap on the sedan in front, with the sun behind somewhat behind me, but I had no where to go to avoid the head on and used my former gymnastics training to jump as high as I could vertically upwards. The van destroyed the bike clipped my shins and legs and I rolled over the roof of the van (I can pull up the ST thread from 2005) and landed on the other side and literally planted the “dismount”. But I was involved in a lot of sports where you spend time airborne in my youth and frankly I got pretty lucky. This was a two lane road with no shoulder and the guy was doing a pass coming off a turn into the road, so was taking up my entire lane (he was coming at me literally from my right hand side, not left so I could not veer right to the ditch/grass/bush.