Mystery Cybertruck Crash Baffles Investigators

This week on Trending in Tesla podcast, Donald Trump says he loves EVs, but he has to. A fiery Cybertrack crash baffles investigators, Tesla announces odd partnership with Costco, but Elon Musk says not so fast. Plus Tesla loses fleet customer and Rivian sheds weight and cash. All that and so much more.

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Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:22 - Donald Trump Loves EVs but he says he has to
5:05 - Tesla loses fleet customers due to Elon/Trump relationship
6:04 - First Cybertruck crash fatality being probed by NHTSA
7:30 -Tesla releases fascinating new safety report on Autopilot
8:33 - EV fires back on the front burner
10:10 - Tesla V4 Superchargers now charging up to 323 KW!
12:57 - Rivian reduces wiring by 1.6 miles and slims down 40 lbs!
15:10 - Tesla unveils new electric Giga Train, already in use in Berlin
17:23 - Popular EV charging accessory being sued by Tesla
20:39 - Tesla announces plans to sell at Costco, Elon says not so fast
24:33 - Bloopers

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[rhackenb]

We're a Costco member and also have two Tesla Model 3's (2019 and 2022). I've been trying for years to get Tesla to put in chargers. If they were to act as a sales point for Teslas and models on display, people could see them and maybe buy them. The Costco rep could help them through the buying process as well as provide tire changes and alignment. The Costco parking lots are huge and Tesla might put in a line of superchargers at the far end of the parking lot (of course to members and non-members). If Tesla owners could assume that every Costco has a supercharger station, travelling long distance would be a no-brainer. People might just buy a Costco membership so that they can get into the store and use the restrooms and snack bar.

[mike]

I don't think Elon realizes how many Teslas there are in my local Costco parking lot. I'd say these are exactly the type of consumers Tesla needs to promote to.

[wngimageanddesign]

99.9% of fatal accidents are caused by human error. Mostly DUI. Distracted operation, medical/health issues.

[MandrakeDCR]

Dude, as completely crushed as that truck was, that thing had to be either going max speed or took a major height drop or something insane. Regular Tesla cars can take an incredible amount of impact before crumpling like that, and the CyberTruck is even more sturdy than the rest of the fleet. I can't imagine the force involved. Man, I feel sorry for the family's loss. I am very curious to know what happened.

[mpow]

Great video, Kim!! It is great to have a major EV influencer (you) who is a fellow Atlanta metro resident. In the past I have represented one of the Detroit Three automakers in product liability litigation involving fires. I can say two thing based on the images from the accident. First, if you hit a fixed barrier at a high enough speed, and the CT crash was clearly traveling at a high rate of speed, a fire is very likely regardless of whether the vehicle is gas or electric. Second, the unfortunate driver who perished in this accident was very likely already dead before his a her body was consumed by flames. This accident would have been fatal in any automobile ever made.

[Tienmillion]

Those laptops sitting half way over the table bother me.

[KJSvitko]

Frumpy can be bought by anyone or any country.

[commuterbranchline]

Rossman in Germany have 45 Tesla vehicles out of a fleet of over 500 cars. So, they have hardly got with the program to start with.

[Leafbinder]

A Fool thinks a greased pig isnt hard to handle. That being said can be the same for expecting to get a concrete answer from a politician.

[JamieReneeVonTeez]

Rossmann Drugs “fleet” is only 32 EVs.

[literv]

Hey Kim as an intelligent ev owner and mom. How about doing a video on ice vehicle fire's?
Here in the U.S. alone every 4mins an ice vehicle used for personal reasons burns up. 217, 000+in 2023.

The #1 open recall across ALL LEGACY ice oems right now is for the risk of FIRE even when parked right NOW effecting over 4, 000, 000 vehicle's produced in the last 3-5 year's.

And also mention tesla lead the way to lfp cells in their base model's since late 2021 NOW. With over 45% of ALL teslas sold globally since then using lfp prismatic cells from either byd or catl. Which have ZERO cobalt or nickel in them and much less fire risk! 😎

Over in China which just hit 50% in nev vehicle sales? Lfp cells through q2 of 2024 are at 68% market share already. 👍🏻

[mikejohnson]

I really don’t think it comes down to your party “color”… it’s more about logic! 1) Moving parts are subject to wear… less moving parts, less wear… EV’s have many hundreds less moving parts. 2) both battery’s and oil are messy to mine… Battery’s are highly recyclable and will therefore in time need less mining, Oil is consumed and then you need more! 3) We are going to need oil for many years into the future… but we should use it for more efficient uses… Transportation only turns 25 to 30% of the energy into forward motion. Other uses like heating are in the 80 to 90% efficient. I don’t think we are going to want to or be ready to not have oil to manufacture textiles, chemicals, plastics and much more anytime soon. Most of these uses are for durable goods that are much better use and a more valuable use of oil. 4) The transition to an electric centric economy is an evolution not a revolution, people will make purchases that work for their family budget. Electric passenger cars are now more affordable for most households, it will take time for the proof to become obvious for many. (Already proving it in my budget with a model Y) Solar will go through the same transition. 5) Trying to force it creates an artificial reality. Dropping or postponing the transition to EV mandate is wise, it will happen at the right pace for the expanding infrastructure all by itself and competition will sort out the winners and losers. And we should stop subsidizing the oil industry as well… the cost will then reflect the value and it will be used for what yields the best return, and EV’s will make sense to even more families. 6) power grid is not the problem. Overnight charging actually is a financial gain to the power companies, they have excess capacity overnight that goes unsold, with EV’s they sell more! 7) Getting oil out of the ground, into storage, transported to refineries, refining, pumping into storage, then into trucks, then pumped into your vehicle all takes ELECTRICITY! I have read that it is something like 7 to 8KW of electricity to get a gallon of oil from the ground to your auto fuel tank that will then take you about 28 miles (average) in your ICE car…. 8KW will take my model Y about 30 miles and i have consumed ZERO oil to do it! Let logic win the day!

[LittleolBitty]

For rossmon politics is more important than the climate. Interesting.

[dugfriendly]

Love Tesla, but I don’t conflate Musk with the brand. He’s a great hype man.

[douggolde]

I would prefer an LFP battery in Cybertruck.

[Nynex]

There isn’t autopilot on
cybertruck yet.

[jmp]

Elon sometimes is a real dope. How do you not know what your company is doing?

[LittleolBitty]

Can't wait to see the Data from the crashed Cybertruck.

[CybrPapa]

I’m not afraid to drive my cyber truck.

[jmel]

EV-Ject...I was intending to buy 2 of them as I've encountered sketchy situations at Superchargers awhile alone, late at night. My wife now uses a particular Supercharger that is located far back in a parking lot behind a Lowe's hardware store. Stuff happens.

The crux of the matter is does the handle get extremely hot as Tesla has stated?
It does come to mind also, that Tesla may be working on a solution of their own...Hardware or software? If they were working on an accessory to sell on their website, could they be flexing to scare away competition?

This was and is a very serious weakness of EVs plugged into public charging. You are stuck there literally and driving off is not possible, leaving you extremely vulnerable to attacks. Bad guys are not stupid. They share things and see everything we see online. Take the Model 3 window vulnerability that spawned 100s of car break-ins, especially in San Francisco. To this day we watch Wham Bam Teslacam instances of thieves exploiting this weakness. Creative entrepreneurs sell gadgets on Amazon, designed to thwart these intrusions.

Tesla should solve these issues in present and future cars. They are now well-known vulnerabilities.