HN Explorer

Ask HN: Are Tesla accidents now off-topic?

9 points by asn0 ↗ HN
I posted[1] an article a few hours ago about a Tesla going 60MPH rear-ending a vehicle that was stopped at a red light[2]. I check back a few hours later and the post is marked "[flagged]".

I'm confused, what about this article led to it being flagged? It seems pretty similar to other recent submissions[3,4,5,6], none of which were flagged.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17056262

[2] https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46319215&nid=148&title=police-tesla-slams-into-truck-stopped-at-red-light

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17036436

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17045302

[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17030875

[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16894353

6 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 23.0 ms ] thread
ggm
you might need to ask more directly if there is any commonality the "mods" see, in the IP ranges and identities behind the flagging...
gus_massa
A few similar post were flagged. I guess it was flagged because it's not clear at all that the autopilot was enabled, so it still can be an usual traffic accident that is not interesting. For speculation, the Tesla autopilot has problems with static objects and they hit a fire truck a few months ago, so some problem with the autopilot is possible here ...

Continuing with the guessing, most of the other posts you references were about an accident where the Tesla car burn. Apparently it is confirmed that the autopilot was not enabled, but people has an irrational fear of battery fires in spite gas cars can burn more easily. So I guess the irrational fear made them more interesting and the post were not flagged.

Don't read too much in the flagging. Sometimes a post is unnecessary flagged and sometimes a clear bad post survives. If you see some very bad case and the flag/vouch button is not enough you can send an email to the mods: hn@ycombinator.com , they usually reply soon.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
DrScump
It's possible people got this Utah case confused with the Florida case of a couple of days ago.
newman8r
I was actually just going to submit this story and found this post via search, so I guess I won't post it.

I think it's a relevant story because it's the second 'firetruck' incident involving Tesla this year.

Does the autopilot software have issues with firetrucks? We don't know if autopilot was involved in this case yet. If it was though, shouldn't that have been a relatively straightforward software fix? Did Tesla do anything to bolster the ability to recognize firetrucks?

I'm rooting for Tesla, but I think these discussions are interesting and belong here.