Driving in the pouring rain is always a risk. Reduced visibility makes it hard to spot hazards, and soaking wet road surfaces can result in a rapid loss of traction. Hydroplaning, or the act of sliding across a wet road surface in a car, is terrifying, and only the quickest reactions can prevent disaster.
A viral video has shown a speeding Tesla flying along the Los Angeles freeway in the driving rain before completely spinning out of control, hydroplaning across multiple lanes. The heavy EV goes into a complete spin, losing no speed as the wheels sit on top of the wet road surface.
Dash cam footage follows the spinning car as it careens towards the central divider. But, somehow, whether it’s due to lightning-quick reactions from the driver or exceptional engineering, the car is wrestled back under control.
Mere meters from the concrete divider, the Tesla straightens up again, pulling itself forward-facing once again, having missed both the other cars in parallel lanes. Somehow, despite the high-speed hydroplane, the Tesla was able to recover and take it a little slower in the pouring rain.
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Skill Or Engineering?
Teslas have elements that make them more susceptible to hydroplaning, but others that are in place to prevent things like this from happening. But, at the end of the day, it comes down to the driver’s decisions when risks are taken or avoided. Here, a combination of the Tesla’s inner technology and the driver’s poor decisions resulted in the high-speed slide.
Teslas come equipped with some of the most advanced technology to have ever been put into a vehicle. They make the rocket that took men to the moon look like a pocket calculator. There are numerous measures in place to prevent slides, and in the unavoidable situation one happens, to wrest the cars back under control.
Tesla comes with ‘Slippery Surface Mode’ designed to mitigate dangerous terrain, such as ice, mud, and rain. Clearly, the driver had forgotten to turn this one on. Modern EVs also come equipped with highly advanced active stability and traction control. In the case of this video, watching the car pull itself back into the lane cleaner than a Bond stunt, it’s likely that this kicked in.
Despite all these safety features, the driver of this EV still managed to lose control on the soaking wet Los Angeles freeway. The video shows the Tesla driving far too quickly given the road conditions. They probably took the rest of the drive much slower after such a near miss with the concrete divider.