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Comment by volent | Hacker News Reader

Or maybe it's not the type of car but the type of person who buys these cars :)

Two days ago:

I was walking down the road, beside me a young man with airpods on. He was walking on a side lane which is intended for parking lots. Suddenly, a Tesla was driving behind him with about the same speed, but at a distance of less than 10cm behind him.. forcing him off the street. He didn't hear or see the car.

So, how stupid a driver must be to drive that close behind a walking one?

It's Tesla drivers. In Germany I saw that kind of behavior more than once.

If someone could drive "less than 10cm behind" a pedestrian without them noticing, my reaction is to be impressed with such astonishingly precise driving.

Astonishingly precise driving should be reserved for a closed circuit, not a public street, where there are a million other variables you can't control.

That's why a good driver in public is a smooth and predictable one, not one who can just parallel park with 2 cm space in one go every time.

The pedestrian guy did not hear the Tesla. And the Tesla was really that close. I saw it and thought what the heck is happening - even if the road is yours, why would you choose to drive that close to a pedestrian - who at any time can choose to stop or to turn around. It's stupid, because if the Tesla would even slightly touch the pedestrian, it would be a serious problem for the driver.

I looked at the Tesla driver, then the pedestrian noticed something is wrong and then noticed the Tesla, too, and left the lane.

This is a very risky and reckless driving behavior. I've seen such behavior from young guys wanting to impress or some stupid drivers with fast cars who things the roads are belong to them. The Tesla driver was about 50y old.

I've should have made a video and post it here. No one believes me :)

I don’t believe you. When the two entities are a wheeled vehicle and a bipedal animal, the differences in locomotion are too different to achieve a sub-10cm clearance.

I think Tesla used some sort of adaptive cruise control or FSD :)

Obviously not true.

You're questioning what you didn't see by yourself and can't imagine that a car can drive as fast 7km/h without any help of cruise control?

Ok..

I'm not questioning what you said, I'm saying that you are wrong.

It's obviously not true that "adaptive cruise control or FSD" could explain your anecdote. Adaptive cruise does not engage in a Tesla unless the road is marked and painted. FSD is not available in Germany. Even if it was, it's far too cautious around pedestrians, it wouldn't allow itself to get within 1 metre of a pedestrian let alone 0.1 metres.

It's also obviously not true that "Tesla used" anything, because the car in your anecdote was owned and operated by a (presumably) licensed driver and not by Tesla.

A better hypothesis for your anecdote is that the driver was French and not that driving a Tesla vehicle somehow reprograms human brains to drive dangerously.

No, the kind of people buying a Tesla are already programmed to drive like this. That's the whole point.

It's the same question like who buy's a BMW or a Mercedes Benz? There's a special type of people the different car makers are aiming at. The same applies to Tesla drivers.

In Germany, where a lot of discussion around cars is happening, just a special type of people buy Tesla.

We're veering into the pew pew topic territory. It is the cars :)

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