8 ms·

As a cyclist, there isn't any car on the road that scares me more than these. The drivers are worse than aggressive truck drivers. Given that it's the best sel

by cheeze 3y ago

As a cyclist, there isn't any car on the road that scares me more than these. The drivers are worse than aggressive truck drivers. Given that it's the best selling car, maybe it's just that people are generally horrible at driving? At least in my area the drivers of these seem an order of magnitude more clueless than any others.

artursapek 3y ago
it’s because Tesla drivers know the AI will save them from making any mistakes /s
- anonporridge 3y ago
  I have heard second hand accounts from friends who have been hit by Teslas whose drivers tried to claim innocence because they were convinced their car would definitely have told them if they hit something and it didn't.
  - jdminhbg 3y ago
    I have also heard urban legends.
jackmott42 3y ago
As a cyclist, I haven't noticed anything like that. I suspect some internal bias towards EVs or against Elon or something is making you notice a pattern that isn't there.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- skellington 3y ago
  Tesla drivers statistically have significantly less accidents than other vehicles. So, by the data, they can't be worse than other drivers.
  - jimjimjim 3y ago
    yeah of course. because as we all know, accidents are the only indicator of bad driving
    - ETH_start 3y ago
      It seems like they would be a reliable indicator of bad driving, and moreover, the primary one.
      - garte 3y ago
        If you're being cut off or they are not using their indicators or if they park in your lane or they drive really close behind you or they use too much space when turning a corner or they simply don't see you because they're looking left rather than right or they are using their mobile device or they take your right of way or they change lanes without looking... they are bad drivers without accidents because everyone else is watching out for them.
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    How are the cars compared?
- dazc 3y ago
  It may be just a UK thing but I find Tesla drivers the least aggressive of all expensive car drivers. If I see a Range Rover, Mercedes, Audi, BMW or any large pick-up in my rear view mirror I expect to be aggressively tailgated and I'm generally correct. This has not happened to me with a Tesla, that I can recall.
  - rcpt 3y ago
    Yeah. I assume teslas are using the lane following thing most of the time.
sen 3y ago
Purely anecdata but I spend a lot of time walking and cycling, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Tesla Y/3 drivers are up there with BMW (higher end newer model) drivers as the most arrogant and oblivious drivers on the road. It’s actually kind of impressive how those cars have so many driver aids, yet they still manage to drive like drunk 16yr old learners.
blindriver 3y ago
People said the same thing about the Prius when it was the most popular car.
- asdff 3y ago
  Except that prius took 10 seconds to go to 60mph and this tesla takes 3. Lead foot + silent car + crazy fast 0-60 = people driving like a GTA game.
  - Shekelphile 3y ago
    There's plenty of people driving like it's GTA in their dog-slow base model nissan altimas and ram 2500s, more BEVs isn't gonna change the fact that a large chunk of society are selfish and antisocial.
    - asdff 3y ago
      Having a fast car like that also makes road diets less effective, if a car can get up to 60mph in an instant after a speed bump. The altima would take say 10 seconds of the engine sounding like its very angry with you, there wouldn't be time to get up to 60mph before the next speed bump perhaps, and if you drove like that everywhere you went you'd get like 10mpg maybe. It truly makes no sense why the NHTSA seemingly works so hard with crash testing, yet they see no problems with a 5000lb family sedan that goes faster than a Ferrari F40.
      - Mawr 3y ago
        From what I've heard, most crash testing focuses on car-on-car crashes, instead of car-on-pedestrian. The inevitable result is big and fast cars efficient at killing pedestrians.
  - borissk 3y ago
    And don't forget the lack of control knobs. The stupid touch interface takes drivers attention away from the road.
a1371 3y ago
I have noticed this too and I feel it's because of the higher acceleration. It may give the drivers the feeling that they can insert themselves in even closer encounters because the car is more responsive.
- mertd 3y ago
  Ever notice how some minivan drivers go way too fast for the size of their vehicle? Some think it is because the good forward visibility gives the drivers too much confidence. 3 and Y may have the same good visibility "problem" due to the sloping hood and the non existing dashboard.
anonporridge 3y ago
It's interesting because there used to be a similar cliche about Prius drivers being terrible when they were a new sensation. Maybe there's something about people who are first adopters of "environmentally friendly" cars feeling a sense of moral license, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing, and end up being less conscientious on the road as a result. Or maybe the rest of us just notice these bad drivers more because the cars stick out on the road as new and unusual. Or maybe the drivers tend to just be rich, distracted assholes.
- ashtonbaker 3y ago
  It’s definitely related to the moral license thing in my opinion. As a cyclist there are a lot of bad drivers out there, but I’ve learned to treat every Tesla like I do lifted trucks. I think they feel that they are at the top of the moral hierarchy and forget about pedestrians and cyclists completely. Not all of them, obviously, but enough.
- bsder 3y ago
  The main irritant about initial Prius drivers was that they were a pain in the ass for going so goddamn slow--a LOT of them were "hypermiling". This is different from the Tesla drivers who think that their acceleration always lets them cut in front of people.
- simondotau 3y ago
  Or maybe drivers are like that exist in similar amounts across brands and models, but human nature means we only think to attach a driver's behaviour to the brand/class of vehicle when we're primed to do so. I've noticed that with taxis. In my city, taxi drivers have a reputation for driving like arseholes. I thought this too, but I started paying more attention and I realised that the vast majority of taxi drivers were driving entirely unremarkably. Before when I saw something which confirmed a prejudice, I thought it was more evidence in favour of that prejudice; now I realise that it was the Texas sharpshooter fallacy all along. It seems to be true for just about every prejudice I've ever been told about. BMW drivers use their indicators just as often as anyone else. Owners of cheap Toyotas are just as likely to drive unreasonably fast as owners of high powered sports cars.
ck2 3y ago
I've often wished there was some kind of tiny beacon cyclists and pedestrians could carry to electronically alert those kinds of cars/drivers. Yeah it's incorrectly shifting the responsibility to the victim but at this point whatever prevents injury/death/stress. The problem is it would be abused to trick drivers.
- wilg 3y ago
  No need, the cars already see cyclists and pedestrians and have emergency braking. A transponder system is just a worse version of the existing solution.
  - ck2 3y ago
    The cars don't see cyclists and pedestrians consistently or in time or interpret them correctly. All Tesla sensors have been reduced to just cameras which can fail in weather, fog, rain, snow. Remember Musk outsources safety for savings/profit as someone else's expensive problem. A beacon could save lives for those who are active and willing to carry it as one extra level of protection. But like I said the problem is spoofing for those that want to be an irritant.
asdff 3y ago
Big fast car with an automatic transmission is a recipe for you getting forced out of your lane by someone in over 5000lbs of metal who thinks their time is more important than considering your life by changing lanes to pass. O-60 entirely silently in 3 seconds, you won't even realize you are going fast enough to kill someone instantly.
- soperj 3y ago
  They're definitely not silent at 60.
  - asdff 3y ago
    https://youtu.be/ZTrfpahATpc?t=82 https://youtu.be/ZTrfpahATpc?t=82 Seems pretty quiet in the cabin getting to 60 in under 2 seconds with the plaid.
    - oittaa 3y ago
      Outside the car the tires make quite a lot noise.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
    - Lndlrd 3y ago
      You realize the cabin audio is background audio in that video -- edited to be much lower volume than the foreground narrator, right? Like, how about I share a video of a hellcat 0-60 but turn down the audio to 1% and call it quiet?
  - pengaru 3y ago
    Relatively speaking an EVs 3s 0-60 is ~silent compared to any ICE doing the same 0-60 time. That level of acceleration generally requires a pretty rowdy ICE with the taps wide open.
nawgz 3y ago
People are generally horrible at driving. But then giving them a big, fast SUV with absurd levels of acceleration available is a horrible choice, and so hearing that this is the best seller should definitely strike fear into our hearts. Corollas are tiny and like a relic of a bygone era. These new vehicles shouldn’t be more agile on top of being way bigger.
KerrAvon 3y ago
Yeah, but the spontaneous battery fires really help light the way at night in areas where the streetlights are poor.
- influxmoment 3y ago
  Maybe watch less sensational news and go outside more. I wouldn't feel so immune in your combustion car. You know what combustion means? You'd be surprised to know they also combust unexpectedly and on impact
doktorhladnjak 3y ago
The car is a giant smartphone with a distracted driver
Pxtl 3y ago
Imho it's just culturally taken the place of the Beamer for the same kind of drivers. You know, the old "despite its good brakes, the BMW will usually stop with a jerk".
dzhiurgis 3y ago
Given Tesla and truck hate Cybertruck is going to be ultimate. Lucky they are making it from a solid steel.
renewiltord 3y ago
I have a GoPro 360 and ride every day to work and back in SF. I curate my video afterwards for interesting scenes. Nothing notable about car makes. "Keep Tahoe Blue" Ancient Subaru? Signal free lane change into bike lane. G Wagon with no licence plate on the front? Signal free lane change into bike lane. When I used to ride my motorcycle the vehicle that put me in the hospital was a Prius. Tesla Model S cars are wide and annoying to lane split against but the drivers are just drivers. Ultimately, this appears to be purely a cultural thing. People want to say that someone else is not better than them. So they will find some way to attach some unlikeable attribute to them.
jillesvangurp 3y ago
I cycle a lot in Berlin. My observation is that EVs are far safer to be around because the car will hit the breaks before the driver gets into any trouble. Big ICE cars on the other hand are the worst. SUVs are the worst. I constantly get cut off by obnoxious drivers aggressively driving from traffic light to traffic light, cutting off people, breaking the speed limit, running red lights, double parking, or slamming their door in your face because they can't bothered to look around then. German traffic rule enforcement is very hands off so there is a lot of this going on. I deal with this on a daily basis.
globular-toast 3y ago
I stopped cycling a few years ago. It just isn't fun or safe any more. It's been getting worse and worse. I would go out and literally every single ride would involve a near-death experience. Cars were a huge mistake.

by cheeze 3y ago

artursapek 3y ago

it’s because Tesla drivers know the AI will save them from making any mistakes /s

anonporridge 3y ago
I have heard second hand accounts from friends who have been hit by Teslas whose drivers tried to claim innocence because they were convinced their car would definitely have told them if they hit something and it didn't.
- jdminhbg 3y ago
  I have also heard urban legends.

jackmott42 3y ago

As a cyclist, I haven't noticed anything like that. I suspect some internal bias towards EVs or against Elon or something is making you notice a pattern that isn't there.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
skellington 3y ago
Tesla drivers statistically have significantly less accidents than other vehicles. So, by the data, they can't be worse than other drivers.
- jimjimjim 3y ago
  yeah of course. because as we all know, accidents are the only indicator of bad driving
  - ETH_start 3y ago
    It seems like they would be a reliable indicator of bad driving, and moreover, the primary one.
    - garte 3y ago
      If you're being cut off or they are not using their indicators or if they park in your lane or they drive really close behind you or they use too much space when turning a corner or they simply don't see you because they're looking left rather than right or they are using their mobile device or they take your right of way or they change lanes without looking... they are bad drivers without accidents because everyone else is watching out for them.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  How are the cars compared?
dazc 3y ago
It may be just a UK thing but I find Tesla drivers the least aggressive of all expensive car drivers. If I see a Range Rover, Mercedes, Audi, BMW or any large pick-up in my rear view mirror I expect to be aggressively tailgated and I'm generally correct. This has not happened to me with a Tesla, that I can recall.
- rcpt 3y ago
  Yeah. I assume teslas are using the lane following thing most of the time.

sen 3y ago

Purely anecdata but I spend a lot of time walking and cycling, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Tesla Y/3 drivers are up there with BMW (higher end newer model) drivers as the most arrogant and oblivious drivers on the road. It’s actually kind of impressive how those cars have so many driver aids, yet they still manage to drive like drunk 16yr old learners.

blindriver 3y ago

People said the same thing about the Prius when it was the most popular car.

asdff 3y ago
Except that prius took 10 seconds to go to 60mph and this tesla takes 3. Lead foot + silent car + crazy fast 0-60 = people driving like a GTA game.
- Shekelphile 3y ago
  There's plenty of people driving like it's GTA in their dog-slow base model nissan altimas and ram 2500s, more BEVs isn't gonna change the fact that a large chunk of society are selfish and antisocial.
  - asdff 3y ago
    Having a fast car like that also makes road diets less effective, if a car can get up to 60mph in an instant after a speed bump. The altima would take say 10 seconds of the engine sounding like its very angry with you, there wouldn't be time to get up to 60mph before the next speed bump perhaps, and if you drove like that everywhere you went you'd get like 10mpg maybe. It truly makes no sense why the NHTSA seemingly works so hard with crash testing, yet they see no problems with a 5000lb family sedan that goes faster than a Ferrari F40.
    - Mawr 3y ago
      From what I've heard, most crash testing focuses on car-on-car crashes, instead of car-on-pedestrian. The inevitable result is big and fast cars efficient at killing pedestrians.
- borissk 3y ago
  And don't forget the lack of control knobs. The stupid touch interface takes drivers attention away from the road.

a1371 3y ago

I have noticed this too and I feel it's because of the higher acceleration. It may give the drivers the feeling that they can insert themselves in even closer encounters because the car is more responsive.

mertd 3y ago
Ever notice how some minivan drivers go way too fast for the size of their vehicle? Some think it is because the good forward visibility gives the drivers too much confidence. 3 and Y may have the same good visibility "problem" due to the sloping hood and the non existing dashboard.

anonporridge 3y ago

It's interesting because there used to be a similar cliche about Prius drivers being terrible when they were a new sensation. Maybe there's something about people who are first adopters of "environmentally friendly" cars feeling a sense of moral license, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing, and end up being less conscientious on the road as a result. Or maybe the rest of us just notice these bad drivers more because the cars stick out on the road as new and unusual. Or maybe the drivers tend to just be rich, distracted assholes.

ashtonbaker 3y ago
It’s definitely related to the moral license thing in my opinion. As a cyclist there are a lot of bad drivers out there, but I’ve learned to treat every Tesla like I do lifted trucks. I think they feel that they are at the top of the moral hierarchy and forget about pedestrians and cyclists completely. Not all of them, obviously, but enough.
bsder 3y ago
The main irritant about initial Prius drivers was that they were a pain in the ass for going so goddamn slow--a LOT of them were "hypermiling". This is different from the Tesla drivers who think that their acceleration always lets them cut in front of people.
simondotau 3y ago
Or maybe drivers are like that exist in similar amounts across brands and models, but human nature means we only think to attach a driver's behaviour to the brand/class of vehicle when we're primed to do so. I've noticed that with taxis. In my city, taxi drivers have a reputation for driving like arseholes. I thought this too, but I started paying more attention and I realised that the vast majority of taxi drivers were driving entirely unremarkably. Before when I saw something which confirmed a prejudice, I thought it was more evidence in favour of that prejudice; now I realise that it was the Texas sharpshooter fallacy all along. It seems to be true for just about every prejudice I've ever been told about. BMW drivers use their indicators just as often as anyone else. Owners of cheap Toyotas are just as likely to drive unreasonably fast as owners of high powered sports cars.

ck2 3y ago

I've often wished there was some kind of tiny beacon cyclists and pedestrians could carry to electronically alert those kinds of cars/drivers. Yeah it's incorrectly shifting the responsibility to the victim but at this point whatever prevents injury/death/stress. The problem is it would be abused to trick drivers.

wilg 3y ago
No need, the cars already see cyclists and pedestrians and have emergency braking. A transponder system is just a worse version of the existing solution.
- ck2 3y ago
  The cars don't see cyclists and pedestrians consistently or in time or interpret them correctly. All Tesla sensors have been reduced to just cameras which can fail in weather, fog, rain, snow. Remember Musk outsources safety for savings/profit as someone else's expensive problem. A beacon could save lives for those who are active and willing to carry it as one extra level of protection. But like I said the problem is spoofing for those that want to be an irritant.

asdff 3y ago

Big fast car with an automatic transmission is a recipe for you getting forced out of your lane by someone in over 5000lbs of metal who thinks their time is more important than considering your life by changing lanes to pass. O-60 entirely silently in 3 seconds, you won't even realize you are going fast enough to kill someone instantly.

soperj 3y ago
They're definitely not silent at 60.
- asdff 3y ago
  https://youtu.be/ZTrfpahATpc?t=82 https://youtu.be/ZTrfpahATpc?t=82 Seems pretty quiet in the cabin getting to 60 in under 2 seconds with the plaid.
  - oittaa 3y ago
    Outside the car the tires make quite a lot noise.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - Lndlrd 3y ago
    You realize the cabin audio is background audio in that video -- edited to be much lower volume than the foreground narrator, right? Like, how about I share a video of a hellcat 0-60 but turn down the audio to 1% and call it quiet?
- pengaru 3y ago
  Relatively speaking an EVs 3s 0-60 is ~silent compared to any ICE doing the same 0-60 time. That level of acceleration generally requires a pretty rowdy ICE with the taps wide open.

nawgz 3y ago

People are generally horrible at driving. But then giving them a big, fast SUV with absurd levels of acceleration available is a horrible choice, and so hearing that this is the best seller should definitely strike fear into our hearts. Corollas are tiny and like a relic of a bygone era. These new vehicles shouldn’t be more agile on top of being way bigger.

KerrAvon 3y ago

Yeah, but the spontaneous battery fires really help light the way at night in areas where the streetlights are poor.

influxmoment 3y ago
Maybe watch less sensational news and go outside more. I wouldn't feel so immune in your combustion car. You know what combustion means? You'd be surprised to know they also combust unexpectedly and on impact

doktorhladnjak 3y ago

The car is a giant smartphone with a distracted driver

Pxtl 3y ago

Imho it's just culturally taken the place of the Beamer for the same kind of drivers. You know, the old "despite its good brakes, the BMW will usually stop with a jerk".

dzhiurgis 3y ago

Given Tesla and truck hate Cybertruck is going to be ultimate. Lucky they are making it from a solid steel.

renewiltord 3y ago

I have a GoPro 360 and ride every day to work and back in SF. I curate my video afterwards for interesting scenes. Nothing notable about car makes. "Keep Tahoe Blue" Ancient Subaru? Signal free lane change into bike lane. G Wagon with no licence plate on the front? Signal free lane change into bike lane. When I used to ride my motorcycle the vehicle that put me in the hospital was a Prius. Tesla Model S cars are wide and annoying to lane split against but the drivers are just drivers. Ultimately, this appears to be purely a cultural thing. People want to say that someone else is not better than them. So they will find some way to attach some unlikeable attribute to them.

jillesvangurp 3y ago

I cycle a lot in Berlin. My observation is that EVs are far safer to be around because the car will hit the breaks before the driver gets into any trouble. Big ICE cars on the other hand are the worst. SUVs are the worst. I constantly get cut off by obnoxious drivers aggressively driving from traffic light to traffic light, cutting off people, breaking the speed limit, running red lights, double parking, or slamming their door in your face because they can't bothered to look around then. German traffic rule enforcement is very hands off so there is a lot of this going on. I deal with this on a daily basis.

globular-toast 3y ago

I stopped cycling a few years ago. It just isn't fun or safe any more. It's been getting worse and worse. I would go out and literally every single ride would involve a near-death experience. Cars were a huge mistake.