A Tesla driver in the Northern Territory escaped tragedy recently when their car was washed off a flooded road.
Stranded vehicle experts from NT Towing and Recovery collected the Tesla Model Y from Old Bynoe Road at Berry Springs about 45 minutes south of Darwin, where it failed to progress through a flooded creek crossing.
MORE: Australia to miss out on lifesaving tech
The business posted images of the incident to Facebook, describing it as “Just a $100,000 toaster taking a bath”.
Car enthusiasts poked fun at the “self-diving” car on social media, asking whether it was “recharging the battery with electric eels” before passing on advice to its driver including “you can’t park there”, and that “it will be fine just stick in a tub with rice for a bit”.
MORE: China joins giant car trend
Like a phone dropped in a toilet.
Others rightly felt the incident was a timely reminder that drivers should not attempt to cross flooded roads.
The same business recovered a more capable four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi Triton ute at the same crossing earlier this year.
MORE: Aussies using AI loophole to beat fines
Both incidents occurred less than five minutes upstream in the same creek flowing from the Darwin River that claimed the life of local resident Karen Margaret Kelly in 2010.
Kelly died when her Toyota Corolla was washed off Leonino Road, prompting the NT Coroner to call for upgrades.
Changes to the road’s surface, signs, drainage and barriers shown in the image comparison below helped make the area, now known as Karen Kelly Crossing, much safer.
But that did not stop an Uber driver from becoming stranded in a Mazda CX-5 earlier this year.
The NT News reported that one of the two people stranded in the car could not swim, and that the driver “probably didn’t get a five-star rating”.
Car makers are working with safety bodies such as ANCAP to make it easier to escape from submerged vehicles.
Some new cars are equipped with special hammers to help shatter glass during an emergency, and Zeekr has equipped its 7X with self-shattering glass in China.
