Bad Guy Escapes as Tesla Patrol Car Runs Low

Too bad Burt Reynolds is no longer around to do Smokey and the Bandit sequels. They could amp up the laughter by having truckers haul through the San Francisco Bay Area at excessive speeds while law enforcement tries to catch up in a Tesla patrol car.

From the Mercury News:

During the pursuit of a “felony vehicle” that started in Fremont and reached peak speeds of about 120 miles per hour on the highway, the officer driving the Tesla radioed in to dispatch that he might not be able to continue the chase he was leading.

“I am down to six miles of battery on the Tesla so I may lose it here in a sec,” Officer Jesse Hartman said.

Shortly thereafter, the chase was called off for safety’s sake because the suspect began driving on the shoulder. The pursuing officer remained in a fix:

“I’ve got to try to find a charging station for the Tesla so I can make it back to the city,” Hartman said over the radio.

The driver might have been listening in on the police band and laughed so hard he crashed the vehicle.

[California Highway Patrol] informed Fremont police that the car they were chasing was later found crashed into some bushes not far from where the chase was called off, and the driver was not found…

Although the bad guy got away, the important thing is that the department signaled its virtue by becoming possibly the first in the country to promote climate stasis by rolling out an ecorighteous Tesla as a patrol car.

The used 2014 Tesla Model S is considered part of a pilot program, to determine whether electric vehicles are suitable for police use on a larger scale.

Officer Hartman could provide the answer, assuming anyone in charge would listen.

The department spent a tad over $61,000 to buy the car from Tesla in 2018.

Then it took a year to modify the car for police use.

The used Tesla cost approximately $20,000 more than a new Ford Explorer police vehicle that the department uses for its other patrol vehicles, though officials said they expect to save on fuel and maintenance costs over the long run with the Tesla.

Yeah right. Big savings, I’m sure. Plus they save on incarceration costs by letting the criminals escape.

On a tip from Dragon’s Lair.

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