Angela Chao: Shipping billionaire intoxicated when she drowned in Tesla, police report shows
bbc.com
Shipping tycoon Angela Chao was drunk when she inadvertently reversed her Tesla into a pond and drowned last month at a Texas ranch, police say.
Blanco County Sheriff's Office found her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the state's legal limit.
The 50-year-old died after dinner on 10 February with a group of friends at the estate near Johnson City.
Her brother-in-law, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, cited the tragedy in his resignation speech.
On Wednesday, Blanco County Sheriff's Office released the findings of its investigation concluding Ms Chao's death was an "unfortunate accident".
Of course she was. Putting your car into reverse and letting it back fully into a pond without braking when you actually meant to put it in drive is not something an unimpaired driver does.
Don’t be so sure. I have seen people, rarely, actually be that incredibly stupid.
But, yes, it most often means they are impaired.
One could argue that a room temperature IQ constitutes enough an impairment for driving.
If Celsius, then yes.
Oh, and if Fahrenheit, then maybe.
If Kelvin, lend me your DeLorean time machine.
If that were the case, then we wouldn’t have global warming problem anymore.
Eh, not defending a drunk driver but there's more to this:
So if you are in the wrong gear, then panic stomp the pedal, you can absolutely find yourself speeding in the wrong direction.
Because of course it is... Jesus fucking Christ, of all the things to remove all tactile feedback from...
IIRC you have to swipe the whole screen to change into reverse, so you can't really do it accidentally
Maybe the machine knew where she was going.
For those that don't know where they're going:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOW\_kPzY\_JY
The gear selection method in those is non-intuitive. Doesn't alter your conclusions, just an unfortunate and unsafe design choice.
Edit: replaced wrong words
Adrenaline does weird things to your brain, when controlling a car. When startled, we default to getting low and stable. That's good when standing, however, it putting your feet flat on the ground is extremely bad when in the driver's seat.
I've actually witnessed this in action. A slip resulted in 2 cars written off, 1 pushed through several gardens. I can easily see someone doing something similar, with a Tesla. Alcohol would just amplify the effect.
Not just drunk, 3x the limit drunk.
Which is probably like 6 drinks in most states
The only natural predator of billionaires is addiction.
Don't drive drunk, fam.
I don't drink, but I realize that getting home after one has been drinking is a legitimate problem that does encourage people to drive drunk.
It's one thing that I hope that self-driving cars will help address in the long run. If everyone's got their own electronic chauffeur readily available, it's lot easier to let them get one home safely.
FYI there's already a solution: Public transit. I understand the US doesn't have it but the solution already exists.
average American
I've been saying my next car will have FSD for... almost a decade now. I have lost hope that what you describe will be a reality for me anytime soon, and with the progress of self-driving in general? Very. Little. Hope.
She was already in the "probably had it coming" category but this just makes it moreso.
Drinking and driving is the same as making a decision to maim or murder others, in my opinion.
A funny part of this whole thing that isn't discussed... Why isn't the "intelligent robot car" equipped with anything to stop you from doing any of the shit that led to this? Fucking snake oil bullshit.
You really don't want an automated system to have complete, unbreakable control over a scenario. You always want the option for a human to manually take control, because automation isn't foolproof, especially in edge cases.
However, they probably should have a breathalyzer that prevents you from taking manual control if you're so impaired that the automated system is probably safer than your drunken judgement.
You're missing the point, I didn't say full autonomous control. There are thousands of intermediate steps that could be involved - from escalating light/audio warnings, to auto lowering of the Windows or popping doors slightly to relieve pressure when significant water is sensed within car's internals for a sustained period of time to maybe even a temp limit of a vehicle speed/control while it's moving under a certain speed towards a sensed danger and not on a road/highway.
The bigger point is that musk snake oil cars are sold with the vapor of "smart" and this did nothing smart to help save this woman's life, in fact it sealed her into her avoidable death due to poor design and profound lack of several basic and easy to implement potential "smart" features that could have attempted to warn or intervene.
You're absolutely correct.
Smell that Bill? Smells like someone died.
Oh no. Next!
One less billionaire in the world is a good thing no matter the cause.
Err... her kids are just going to inherit that wealth.
This solves nothing and you shouldn't think it does.
The only way to get rid of the ruling class is to redistribute their wealth. Any other suggestion is just a distraction for useful idiots.
I'm reminded of a submarine, but I'm not sure why.
What about a death from a drunk driver is an “unfortunate accident?” It’s not an accident, first of all, because you have to intentionally choose to break the law and operate heavy machinery while blitzed. Second of all it’s not unfortunate it’s fucking preventable because you have to intentionally choose to the break the law and operate heavy machinery while sloshed. I’d even go so far as to say it was fortunate because the drunk driver killed themself instead of someone else which a huge consequence that has led to it being against the law to operate heavy machinery while fucking hammered.
“Gee we’re sorry this person did the thing we tell you not to do from before you start driving it’s so unfortunate they made an intentional choice to endanger the life of anyone around them including themself this very bad decision we tell you not to make was clearly an accident”
Is it illegal to drive drunk on private property? I was under the impression that it wasn’t.
It's pretty unlikely she got into the vehicle to do donuts on the front lawn. It is pretty likely she was gonna enter public roads while intoxicated behind the wheel, and I applaud her for preventing herself from doing it. Permanently.
According to the Florida state police, yes it is.
Seems a little out of their jurisdiction tbh.
Lol police exist to protect private property, of course it's within their jurisdiction.
It turns out a surprising amount of illegal things are still illegal even if you do them at home.
nervously checks on secret basement sweatshop full of kidnapped children sewing knockoff designer jeans
at least post a link to your store
https://www.walmart.com/ they're a small locally run business!
It is illegal to operate a motor vehicle under the influnce anywhere in the state of Texas.
Probably depends where you are. Evidence does suggest however that it is very unwise regardless of the legality.
I mean, it's definitely still an accident. Getting behind the wheel wasn't an accident, and obviously she shouldn't have done it, but reversing into a body of water and drowning to death wasn't an intentional act. Don't be absurd.
How can you be a billionaire CEO and don't have a driver? The CEO of a company I used to work for, cannot contractually drive by itself and had a couple of drivers 24/7 working for him, and he didn't even was a billionaire.
Some people like to drive, some people hate driving.
This tracks. Lewis Hamilton hates driving if he's not racing.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/08/lewis-hamilton-dislikes-driving-outside-of-f1-stressful
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, I race, but you people commute and that's insane.
Can you imagine how frustrating it must be to get stuck in traffic or behind someone going 5 under when you regularly go 155+mph through turns?
He is probably saving himself the headache of felonious speeding tickets and us from his road rage.
I would prefer driving in most situation regardless I'm a CEO or not. Probably that's why I'm not a CEO.....
That said, she could well hire a driver service for that, a taxi or even just call a Uber.
...or just buy Uber...
I continue to be happy for her
One down...
Memento mori.
She did everything wrong that she could have done. I'm going to assume even sober she never read the manual and learned where the manual door releases are.
I am kind of surprised that in 2024 vehicles don't have drop detect sensors but our Roombas do. For 99% of driving of you detect a dropoff, some sort of active brake should be applied...
The false positives with that sort of system would be a major annoyance or dangerous. Steep driveways, rough transitions, potholes, railroad crossings, speed bumps, etc.
A Roomba operates on a nice flat floor and there is no reason it would have to traverse a surface transition of more than 3/8ths of an inch.
Also the speeds are much higher so the brakes would never have time to have any effect. But it could maybe help if designed properly for low-speed maneuvers
You hit a pot hole on the highway and now you’re stopping in the middle of it.
That’s why they don’t exist on vehicles, there’s lots of cases where they drop and still need to keep moving, while only a couple where it should stop, and in those cases it’s usually too late and won’t help.
Well no, obviously there's a maximum speed. Just like parking sensors have different distance warnings when driving versus parking.
And on a Tesla with so much vision, it should really know the topography.
At speed is when you would need the active breaking…
And great now my car stopped in the parking lot from every speed bump…,
Can you provide a usecase where active breaking from a drop would actually help?
I'd argue for drop that extends across the width of the lane, or both. Couple that with a system that can penetrate heavy rain, and two truck drivers might have lived through a washout of Interstate 88 in Central N a few years back. They didn't have much of a chance back then.
After almost freezing to death in Colorado winter with a broken down rental, I make it a point to know how to operate all the locks and ignition manually.
It always amazes me how many people hop in a completely foreign car and just start driving. They'd rather try to learn where the windshield wiper control is while barelling down the highway at 80mph instead of while parked in the garage.
I've got pretty strong rental preferences so I'm sure they hate me when I ask for specific vehicles.
"She was no angel"
Oh well.
From what I understand there was a rather significant window of time between being submerged and the car filling up with water. I am willing to bet she drained whatever she had on her in that timeframe after giving up on the window and her life.
What a coincidence. She dies in a freak accident, conveniently in one of the most corrupt state that is perfect for political cover ups and - out of nowhere - Glitch McConman who had a death grip on democracy for 16 years, who refused to step down even after multiple hang-ups, suddenly decides to retire.
If this doesn’t smell to you, you might already be in a pile of shit
Idk, seems reasonable that a drunk boomer could fatally misuse a piece of tech on accident. Don't Teslas record everything in/around them? Hard to jump to conclusions when we haven't seen all the evidence.
Would you be honestly surprised if Musk ordered a hit personally?
In general? Not really, considering how much of an impulsive piss baby he is. On Chao specifically? I have no idea. What's the motive?
These conspiracy nuts don't need a motive