A Model X drives owner to hospital and saves his life.
Joshua Neally, a 37-year-old attorney in Springfield, Missouri claims his Tesla Model X helped saved his life by taking him to the hospital during a life-threatening emergency.
The incident happened in late July. In a warm Tuesday afternoon Nelly left work earlier than usual as he was going to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. He climbed in his Tesla to drive the 45-minute distance from the law office in Springfield to his house in Branson, Mo.
He says he often uses the Autopilot on his Tesla Model X. As usually, he activated the semi-autonomous driving system after pulling onto the highway. Suddenly, he felt a biting pain in his stomach and chest. He considered of stopping and calling an ambulance but he decided to trust his Tesla. He let his car’s autopilot system carry him down the road toward a hospital that was located more than 20 miles away.
The man says that if he had fallen unconscious, only a few minutes later the software would have pulled the car safely to the side of the road. The Autopilot feature requires the driver to touch the steering wheel every few minutes and Nelly was able to do it despite the pain. He managed to steer the car the final stretch himself and make his way to the emergency room. At the hospital, Nelly was treated and doctors told that he was lucky to survive. It appears he suffered a pulmonary embolism- a fatal obstruction of a blood vessel in the lungs that kills more than 50,000 people a year.
Joshua Nelly says he loves his new Tesla Model X and thinks self-driving features could save more lives. He thinks there is no technology that is perfect, but “the measure is that it’s better and safer.”
