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Tesla Crash Test: What Happened to This Model S in a Parking Lot Charging

Brand new Tesla Model S appears to be hit from the front, while parked in a Las Vegas Parking hotel charging station.
Tesla Crash Test

"The car appeared new when I arrived at the Aria 4:45pm Sunday evening. It had a license plate on the front that said Zero Emissions. The chargers were full, so I parked my Leaf in a normal spot," writes Matthew Royer from Las Vegas, sharing this image of this crashed Tesla in LEAF Owners public group on Facebook.

I asked Matthew if he could tell us more about the incident. He wrote that when he exited the Aria Resort and Casino at 11:05 PM the Tesla was as pictured and there was an Aria security vehicle there with the Tesla.This means the car was parked there and waiting for the owner for six hours or more.

Resorts have good security cameras and the most awesome video surveillance systems. It should be easy for the security personnel to reconstruct what happened with this Tesla Model S. Shouldn't be hard to figure out who did it if they didn't leave a note. On the plus side, with no engine up front, it might even be cheaper to repair than a luxury ICE car, wrote one member in one of the discussion forums regarding this accident.

What do you think, what happened here? Now you see that a dashcam with parking mode, is a necessary item.

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Comments

Stephen Pace (not verified)    June 8, 2016 - 12:01AM

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I have front and back dashcam in my Model S just for this type of thing. Accidents happen, but if someone drove off without leaving a note after something like this, I'd expend a lot of resources to ensure they paid including any fees I had to spend tracking them down. Long range EVs are actually very good candidates for dashcams because in some cars, leaving them 'always on' in parking mode can drain the 12V battery (many cameras have optional shutoffs that prevent that after some period of time). However, on a Tesla, the dashcam could run for weeks since the 12V is constantly recharged by the main battery.

Chuck (not verified)    September 4, 2016 - 7:23PM

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I have the Blackvue 650 also. I have the freedom pop hotspot that I activate in public settings. If an impact is detected my phone/watch get a notification and I can see what's going on live or record the clip.

Josh (not verified)    September 6, 2016 - 1:16AM

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I have same dash cam blackvue 650 and love cloud features w straight talk mobile hotspot and power from car to power camera