This is the first fatal crash I have heard about since the Tesla Model S Plaid was released for sale in June. This fully electric car can do 0 to 60 mph in 1.99 seconds and has a price starting at $114,490. The specs list the top speed at between 155 and 199 mph, depending on the setup. The scary thing is that the car can reach the low end of this range in 9 seconds going a quarter mile. This kind of performance was previously only available in custom built dragsters and very expensive super cars.
Even experienced drivers can get into trouble trying to manage this kind of acceleration. It is too early to know if there was some kind of malfunction with the vehicle that caused the crash. But, since the driver had 3 passengers in the car at the time of the crash, there is a good chance the driver was showing off the acceleration. YouTube has many videos of drivers showing passengers the acceleration of their new Model S Plaid. Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno, who is an avid car collector, has posted videos of the car on his YouTube channel. Although, he was at a race track when testing the acceleration.
The car doesn't look like a vehicle that can accelerate as fast as it does. It will most likely take more high speed accidents of this type before the NTSB takes any action. Tesla does have the power to limit the performance characteristics through a software update. But doing so would hurt sales of the Model S Plaid. Up to this point, Tesla has managed to brush off any negative news about their vehicles. Will this incident be different? We'll have to wait and see.
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