It’s a strange inversion of safety regulation.

The most intelligent vehicle designs are prohibited from being sold in America.

…the state is targeting vehicles that do not meet FMVSS, with a focus on vehicles the state identifies to be in the Kei class. The RMV identifies a Kei vehicle through the above list and through a short VIN. The state’s logic is that this will be for safety since a Kei vehicle is not built to FMVSS.

I’m sure you can see the problem here. Not only does the above list include vehicles outside of the Kei class, but the state doesn’t seem to be aware that short VINs are not limited to Kei vehicles. A large Nissan Civilian bus will have a short VIN, as would a Toyota Century. I asked Natasha about how the state will interpret short VINs and she told me that they will be applied only to vehicles believed to be in the Kei class with a short VIN. The state is not looking to deny registration to vehicles imported from other countries, either. So, you could import a Japanese car that was sold in Europe and the state wouldn’t care. But that same car from Japan would be a problem.

Notably, the states are given authority to ban cars, which they do based on claims to be following a federal safety rule. See the clever problem?

And so, safe cars with a history of low or no harms somehow end up banned by states on a pretense feds don’t want it on roads.

There’s also an important trivia point here, that regulators try to enforce a 25 mph rule. That speed is a relic of the American car brands creating a stupid loophole in low-emission laws.

In the 1990s they tried to argue electric golf carts should count as their “low emissions” fleet, and then put a 25 mph cap into law to restrict use of electric cars as an actual car.

Tesla slid into this loophole by replacing that golf cart strategy with “credits” instead, and going to the opposite extreme. Unnecessarily fast and wasteful electric engines were paid for by selling huge amounts of credits to companies like Stellantis, that wanted to produce gas guzzling monsters in a flagrant disregard for the environment.

So all of this political BS comes down to the best cars being banned, while the worst cars are funded by taxpayers. A predictably dangerous Tesla Cybertruck, riddled with basic safety design flaws and tragedy after tragedy, isn’t even being considered for a formal ban.

It’s bad.

So bad, that we could call it the Palantir of automotive tech.

Cybertruck FSD, officially marketed with self driving “puffery”, literally tries to drive into a tree. A big tree. Some speculate such dumb mistakes in a “version 12.5.5” are proof the Tesla AI system is just fraud, because it is learning to drive worse with every new release.

Ran a few red lights. Not one. Not two. A few.

Tesla saw a red light, Tesla saw a semi turning in front of it, and it ignored both.

There are only thousands of Cybertrucks in existence and yet in just a few days already there are hundreds of critical safety failures like these.

Along with an explosion of the written complaints, we see video examples being posted at an alarming rate:

The Tesla Cybertruck is unquestionably a public humiliation of its owner, that (like a predictable dumpster fire) poses unnecessary threats to public safety. Why are they legal?

As someone who watches the constant drumbeat of Tesla owners losing court battles, almost as fast as their passengers losing their lives, I have noticed certain names frequently top the list.

My suspicion is some cultures are more susceptible to a particular aspect of Tesla fraud. They believe excessive waste to buy a cheap car brand (substandard parts that cost Tesla $4 to make are sold by them for $900) elevates their sense of privilege — they then intentionally use a bogus “token” vehicle to flaunt or ignore traffic laws, as well as laws of physics.

Notably, the accused in this NZ news story attempted to argue the absolutely weakest possible defense:

Singh contended he wasn’t sleeping, but still appealed the dangerous driving conviction on the basis that he can’t have been driving…

He argued he was not, not driving (double negative = driving), but also that he was not driving. He didn’t claim to be innocent as much that he thought he should be allowed to be a criminal.

Driving while not driving?

As if anyone should be allowed to exist in an “untouchable” criminal state of … X.

And not surprisingly, the courts declared his bunk a fool’s gambit.

High Court judge Justice Matthew Downs disagreed in a decision released last month.

Singh’s cause for conviction wasn’t whether he fell asleep or not, but that he … had not seen what was happening around him in the car, which he did not, Downs said.

Singh also appealed on the grounds that he couldn’t have been guilty of failing to stop for police when he didn’t know he was meant to stop, he wasn’t avoiding stopping, and when he did notice the lights and sirens, he pulled over.

Once again, Downs disagreed.

“Mr Singh’s failure to stop was clearly due to his own fault.”

To be fair, Tesla didn’t see what was happening around the car. Tesla is an abject failure of engineering. A total fraud, claiming to have driverless cars based on “vision”, yet blind to high visibility vehicles with flashing lights SINCE 2016.

It’s unfortunate the courts still aren’t ready to hold Tesla accountable for telling customers they can sleep while operating a car.

Related: California just passed a law that says autonomous cars (road robots) must immediately obey police orders.

Some say there is an unofficial sixth recall related to engine failure.

While we wait for that to percolate into public regulations, let alone the many other unofficial failures of the Cybertruck, here’s the official fifth recall notice this year alone:

Vehicles with rearview cameras in the U.S. must display an image within two seconds of turning on, the NHTSA said, and some of the Cybertrucks failed to display an image for up to eight seconds. Tesla received 45 warranty claims and four field reports that may be related to the defect…

An eight second delay. Forty five claims. So many Cybertrucks have now crashed, it’s a wonder there are nearly fifty of these clown cars still operating.

Now think about how Tesla pumps marketing with “fastest launch time in a straight line” by counting seconds. They constantly talk about each one like it’s the biggest measure of success imaginable.

Zero to 60 in how many seconds? Nevermind, because the Cybertruck can’t get display cameras up and running within two seconds.

In other words it will display a tree six seconds after it has crashed into it.

An eight second delay!

Unbelievable. How bad is Tesla engineering such that they can’t even meet basic safety regulations on a brand new car?