An out of control Nissan hits a Model 3 — but it's hard to spin a Tesla (video)

A Tesla Model 3 was hit on the driver side rear door at highway speeds, the car that came from behind and touched the Model 3 looks like a Nissan Sentra. After hitting the Model 3, the Nissan took a spin and crashed with the side-wall of the highway bridge (video and aftermath pics below).

All of this action was captured by the Model 3 Autopilot rear and side-repeater cameras. Reddit user u/xeavalt posted this video of his friend’s Model 3 on the social media platform where it went viral.

Credits: u/rorlover11

The local Police have confirmed that this incident was a result of a distracted driver, there wasn’t any Tesla hate, road rage, or intentional mischief involved, says the owner in his response on Reddit.

The owner of this beautiful Orange Tesla Model 3 gave the Tesla-cam footage to the police and the insurance companies and it is easily proved that the Nissan was at fault. In response to a question regarding the insurance proceedings with respect to this accident, the Model 3 owner posted the following comments affirming that insurance is going to cover it, he said:

Yeah thankfully. And they appear to have normal insurance. I’m dealing with my Tesla Insurance atm (although it’s really a front for Crawford and Company) and so far I am not impressed.

The orange Tesla Model 3 after the highway accident. Source: u/ro r lover11

When asked by another user, “This would all be on the other driver’s insurance right? Unless you want yours to fight for diminished value adjustment or something”, he said:

In this case, yes the at-fault driver’s insurance is on the hook for repairing my car to “as-was” condition. From my understanding, diminished value is laughably hard to prove and really only applies if you sell the car because of the accident.

Nissan and the rest of the cars (6+ cars pileup) after the accident. Police taking care of the matter. Source: u/rorlover11

Why is it hard to spin a Tesla?

Tesla Model 3 is the safest production car ever built, and it has the lowest probability of occupant injury of all the cars ever tested by the NHTSA.

Besides the fine engineering and a safely design frame and underbody, any Tesla whether it is a Model S,3,X,Y has a rigid battery pack spanning across the floor of the vehicle. This makes the car’s cabin almost impenetrable (watch NHTSA Model 3 crash tests).

Due to the weight of the battery pack which is pointed towards the ground, Teslas also have a very low center of gravity, thus making them more protected against a rollover accident.

A Tesla Model 3 curb weight ranges from 3,627 lb / 1,645 kg (SR+) to 4,072 lb / 1,847 kg (Dual-Motor and Performance variants) — a 1.6 to 1.9-ton car is not easy to spin with a hit like we saw in the above video. Model 3 is the smallest Tesla as of today, larger Model S and Model X have even bigger battery packs and are significantly heavier.