Tesla has promised its robots will reduce risk for people, and NC police are seeing the opposite results first hand.

“When we got behind him with our lights and sirens activated, it didn’t faze him, he didn’t wake up,” Wright said. He said one of his colleagues drives a Tesla so knew what to do. “He knew if he got in front of them, it would activate a sensor on the autopilot and that would wake him up,” Wright said. Investigators found vape pens, some of which were laced with methamphetamine…

The charges for the drug delivery robot included reckless driving.

“He drove about a mile before we could get him to stop,” said Chief A.Z. Williams. “You get drunk drivers, that’s pretty regular. Never quite seen this before.”

One must presume the next drug run by this organization will use a Tesla “summon” feature instead so police won’t have an obvious reason to stop the car (sleeping driver) or anyone in the vehicle to charge.

Add Chinese-funded “bulletproof” models to the drug delivery robot designs from Elon Musk, and police will be especially challenged to stop him from poisoning society… just like how his Russian-funded Twitter robots are known now to be engaged in destroying America.

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.

As I was just saying, Tesla victims are getting younger and younger. What is an 18-year old doing in a Tesla?

An 18-year-old Klamath Falls woman was killed and four people were injured Tuesday when she drove her Tesla into the oncoming lane of U.S. Highway 20 east of Santiam Pass and struck a Jeep head-on, Oregon State Police reported Wednesday.

Almost all Tesla crashes I’ve read about lately involve dangerous drivers in their 20s.

Norfolk Police said a white Tesla Model 3 struck a man in his 30s on South Beach Parade at 21:43 BST on Tuesday. The force added that a pedestrian “sadly died as a result of his injuries” and the driver of the Tesla, a man in his 20s, continues to be questioned by officers.

It’s notable because the promise of CEO Elon Musk was that Tesla would be the safest car on the road by making driving safely more easy. It seems to have done the exact opposite and made the worst drivers far more deadly.