The owner of a Canadian Tesla accidentally got into the wrong car and his app allowed him to drive away in the similar vehicle, the motorist said Tuesday.
Rajesh Randev, 51, used his app to get into his 2021 Tesla Model 3, or so he thought, around 2:30 p.m. on March 7 and went to pick up his two children from school, the counselor said. Vancouver Immigration.
Minutes into the trip, Randev was alarmed to see a crack in the windshield and discovered that his phone’s charging cable was missing.
«I called my wife, ‘What happened to the windshield?’ Randev said. «So it was, ‘Where did my cable go?’ »
Randev ignored several phone calls from someone identified as «Mahmood» because he did not know anyone by that name. Then the bizarre experience became even more confusing when Randev received a text: «Do you drive a Tesla?»
«I thought maybe some customer saw me or maybe some old friend or whatever, maybe someone recognized me (walking by) and sent me a text?» Randev said.
Randev didn’t put it all together until the text explained: «I think (you’re) driving the wrong car.»
Randev said he stopped in an alley, saw that the tires were not off his car, and realized that he had confused his own white Model 3 with the white Model 3 owned by the man in the other lane.
Fortunately, that other Tesla owner, who is an Uber driver, saw a prescription bottle with a cell phone number in the car, allowing them to go online.
“I was totally surprised,” Randev said. “I mean, how was this possible? How was I able to access and drive?”
Randev collected his children and returned to the no-crime scene, where all parties shared laughter and some concerns.
«They (the children) would laugh together. I mean, my children are young, so they love computers and things like that and they would laugh,» Randev said.
«But then, on the other hand, they were also a bit scared, you know, how was this possible?»
The Vancouver mess marks the latest oddity involving the high-end car line which includes elements of driverless technology.
- A Tesla driver was killed and a passenger critically injured on February 18 when the car crashed into a parked fire truck on a Northern California freeway to protect a crew cleaning up another crash, authorities said. It was not immediately clear if the driver may have been intoxicated or if the Tesla Model S was operating with automation or driver assistance functions.
- Limousine driver Kevin George Aziz Riad was driving his Tesla Model S on autopilot in California in late 2019 when he ran a red light and crashed into a Honda Civic, killing Gilberto López and María Guadalupe Nieves-López, authorities said. . The driver has been charged with two counts of grossly negligent vehicular manslaughter and is pending trial in Compton.
- Regulators revealed this month that they have opened an investigation into Tesla’s Model Y SUV after receiving complaints that the steering wheels can come off while driving.
A representative with Tesla’s Investor Relations department could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Randev said that he has been trying to contact Tesla since the incident. And other than an email from a local Tesla dealer requesting his phone number, he hasn’t heard back, he said.
frank polly contributed.