Chao, the billionaire former CEO of dry bulk shipping giant Foremost Group, tragically died at the age of 50 on Feb. 10 after accidentally backing her car into the pond making a three-point turn.
A four-minute drive is like a 20-minute walk. If it was really that cold, I may have done the same thing.
The way you portray it, “it says everything,” is not fair - and yes, I know we’re talking about a billionaire. Like, she deserved to die because she didn’t want to walk in the cold.
Her death shouldn’t have happened the way it did. And again, yes, I know she’s a billionaire, fuck billionaires, etc etc. But her mistake was her not being careful while driving, and potentially the car not being safe enough (e.g. doors jam-locked?)
It’s 100% Tesla’s fault. Mechanical way to open doors is not obvious and hidden, sometimes all together missing. And car relies on power to open the door, which runs out when submerged. Shit car with shit ideas. There’s a reason why windows easily shatter on cars and Musk and his cult followers seem to think getting out of car in case of emergency is less important than sounding cool.
Swiping up to drive is the same direction as tap up to reverse from a previous model Tesla. Kind of like how trackpads and mouse scroll wheels work in opposite directions. I can see how it’s not so intuitive if the direction contradicts 35 years of muscle memory.
Over here, ice roads are opened on typical winters on several smaller bays. The instruction to drivers is:
don’t wear a seatbelt
if ice breaks, open your door swiftly (get out first, then think about calling people)
if you can’t open the door, lower your window swiftly
if you can’t lower the window, break it (the side window, not the windshield - a windshield is multilayer laminate, too strong to break quickly)
Typically, if a car sinks on an ice road, people are likely to get out. A crank-operated window is handy in such a case. But regardless of instruction, sometimes folks do die. :(
In general, I would not like to experience any sort of extreme incident in an over-engineered car. I’d prefer something from the 1970-ties, but with airbags.
Pressure takes a while to build up and you generally can open the door before car sinks enough, it’s been tested. But even if you had to wait for car to fill with water, pressure would equalize then and you’d have no issues opening the door. Of course, you need to keep calm to use all of those tricks but car taking them away from you just increases risk of something like that happening.
Okay but a door that just works is going to be easier to get open before water pressure makes that impossible. Also, once there’s enough water in the car, a mechanical door will open just fine. At which point you swim for it in the opposite direction the car is moving.
Cold, in Texas? I mean, I’m sure it gets cold, but it’s not Canada and people go on 20min walks in the dead of winter with their dogs there. Awful way to die, no question.
Someone living in Siberia may say “cold in Canada? Silly geese.”
I come from a tropical climate in which people wear jackets when it’s 21 C (31 C being the average all year round.) In my mind, 21 degrees Celsius (about 68 F I think) was damn cold.
Of course, I now laugh about that.
But I won’t judge her for not wanting to be cold and using a maybe seemingly reasonable way to do that.
My first trip to Florida from Ohio I was on a tour at Kennedy Space Center. When I got there I noticed all the people in jackets, it was 65F, I was perplexed. Now the opposite is also true, I hate weather over 80F, too dang hot.
You should look at Northern Arizona. Southern Arizona is really hot and then Northern Arizona is high plains that can rival Canada for snow every few years. (Fun fact, when they were wondering where all the snow was for the Vancouver Olympics? It was in Arizona, we stole it fair and square!)
Yes, if it’s cold, I will often make a 4-minute drive instead of walking 20 minutes from my guest house to my main house on my own property. It’s so relatable to most Americans!
You just want to bash billionaires, and I’ve already addressed that in my original comment. If you don’t want to understand my point, that’s on you. Stop with the strawman arguments.
I agree with the sentiment that we shouldn’t be praising people’s deaths, but I want to point out the cold part
Texas Hill Country loosely covers an area around Fredricksburg Texas with San Antonio and Austin being just on the outskirts. Looking back at the weather reports, and not knowing the exact location, the temperature on 2/10 was a low of 45-65 degrees F. Considering the lows typically come in in the late hours of the night the more realistic temperature was somewhere between 50-75 degrees F.
Also, you can see the picture of the ranch in the article which also says it’s a 900 acre ranch. 900 acres is only 1.4 sq miles. It’s one thing to say a 4 min drive at 35 mph vs walking, but realistically it’s a lot slower speed and thus a lot shorter walk.
Point taken, but regardless, it still doesn’t merit some rando say “Driving instead of walking because it’s cold? It says everything - NO WONDER she died!!!” It’s a silly thing to conclude.
A four-minute drive is like a 20-minute walk. If it was really that cold, I may have done the same thing.
The way you portray it, “it says everything,” is not fair - and yes, I know we’re talking about a billionaire. Like, she deserved to die because she didn’t want to walk in the cold.
Her death shouldn’t have happened the way it did. And again, yes, I know she’s a billionaire, fuck billionaires, etc etc. But her mistake was her not being careful while driving, and potentially the car not being safe enough (e.g. doors jam-locked?)
It’s 100% Tesla’s fault. Mechanical way to open doors is not obvious and hidden, sometimes all together missing. And car relies on power to open the door, which runs out when submerged. Shit car with shit ideas. There’s a reason why windows easily shatter on cars and Musk and his cult followers seem to think getting out of car in case of emergency is less important than sounding cool.
I bet her car didn’t have a shifting stalk. New Model X makes you shift using the touchscreen. I knew that idea sounded unsafe but holy moly.
What?
Swiping up to drive is the same direction as tap up to reverse from a previous model Tesla. Kind of like how trackpads and mouse scroll wheels work in opposite directions. I can see how it’s not so intuitive if the direction contradicts 35 years of muscle memory.
The pressure of the water against the door would’ve prevented her from opening it regardless of the door’s mechanical features or power supply issues.
The windows not shattering is absolutely a Tesla design flaw, but there’s no way that woman was ever going to open a door from inside a submerged car.
True, but there’s some more.
Over here, ice roads are opened on typical winters on several smaller bays. The instruction to drivers is:
Typically, if a car sinks on an ice road, people are likely to get out. A crank-operated window is handy in such a case. But regardless of instruction, sometimes folks do die. :(
In general, I would not like to experience any sort of extreme incident in an over-engineered car. I’d prefer something from the 1970-ties, but with airbags.
Pressure takes a while to build up and you generally can open the door before car sinks enough, it’s been tested. But even if you had to wait for car to fill with water, pressure would equalize then and you’d have no issues opening the door. Of course, you need to keep calm to use all of those tricks but car taking them away from you just increases risk of something like that happening.
Okay but a door that just works is going to be easier to get open before water pressure makes that impossible. Also, once there’s enough water in the car, a mechanical door will open just fine. At which point you swim for it in the opposite direction the car is moving.
That’s wouldn’t be a factor once the water entered the car. The pressure equalises if there water is on both side of the door.
Cold, in Texas? I mean, I’m sure it gets cold, but it’s not Canada and people go on 20min walks in the dead of winter with their dogs there. Awful way to die, no question.
Oh I understand. But it’s all about perspective.
Someone living in Siberia may say “cold in Canada? Silly geese.”
I come from a tropical climate in which people wear jackets when it’s 21 C (31 C being the average all year round.) In my mind, 21 degrees Celsius (about 68 F I think) was damn cold.
Of course, I now laugh about that.
But I won’t judge her for not wanting to be cold and using a maybe seemingly reasonable way to do that.
My first trip to Florida from Ohio I was on a tour at Kennedy Space Center. When I got there I noticed all the people in jackets, it was 65F, I was perplexed. Now the opposite is also true, I hate weather over 80F, too dang hot.
See that’s why living in Arizona is so much fun. There’s some park ranger in Death Valley but what’s the odds on running into them online?
Lol! That was funny :)
But anyway, Arizona can have cold snaps, right? Like 32 F at night in January? I know New Mexico and Texas do.
But that rarely happens at sea level in an actual tropical region, near the equator.
You should look at Northern Arizona. Southern Arizona is really hot and then Northern Arizona is high plains that can rival Canada for snow every few years. (Fun fact, when they were wondering where all the snow was for the Vancouver Olympics? It was in Arizona, we stole it fair and square!)
…I have places that are 5 minute drives from my house. Do you think I take 40 minute strolls each time I want to visit one?
Yes, if it’s cold, I will often make a 4-minute drive instead of walking 20 minutes from my guest house to my main house on my own property. It’s so relatable to most Americans!
You just want to bash billionaires, and I’ve already addressed that in my original comment. If you don’t want to understand my point, that’s on you. Stop with the strawman arguments.
Ooh, we got ourselves a mind reader, folks!
I agree with the sentiment that we shouldn’t be praising people’s deaths, but I want to point out the cold part
Texas Hill Country loosely covers an area around Fredricksburg Texas with San Antonio and Austin being just on the outskirts. Looking back at the weather reports, and not knowing the exact location, the temperature on 2/10 was a low of 45-65 degrees F. Considering the lows typically come in in the late hours of the night the more realistic temperature was somewhere between 50-75 degrees F.
Also, you can see the picture of the ranch in the article which also says it’s a 900 acre ranch. 900 acres is only 1.4 sq miles. It’s one thing to say a 4 min drive at 35 mph vs walking, but realistically it’s a lot slower speed and thus a lot shorter walk.
Point taken, but regardless, it still doesn’t merit some rando say “Driving instead of walking because it’s cold? It says everything - NO WONDER she died!!!” It’s a silly thing to conclude.
Absolutely agree