Technology gone awry? What would you do if an electric car drove itself off? Picture: Taras Makarenko/Pexels
Electric cars are said to be the future, but they come with their own particular problems.
As they are relatively new, electric vehicles, and as advanced as they are becoming, engineers might still need to make tweaks here and there to ensure the safety of the driver and pedestrians.
A man from the UK recently experienced a harrowing ordeal. He claimed he was "abducted" by his own runaway electric car, an MG ZS.
This reportedly caused him to go through red lights and intersections before being forced off the road by police.
According to The Mirror, the man’s new electric automobile decided to take control, and the brakes stopped working, causing him to become trapped and move at roughly 48 kilometres per hour.
He is said to have called the authorities from inside the vehicle, who rushed to his aid in the bizarre situation.
When the motorist approached a roundabout, he supposedly sensed something was amiss and attempted to slow down, but it did not work.
Then he is said to have heard a loud grinding noise that sounded like brake pads - but because it was such a new automobile, he assumed that could not be the problem.
“I managed to get around the roundabout going at about 30mph (48 km/h) and then had a long road ahead of me, so I assumed it would stop without me accelerating, but it did not.
“I have mobility issues, so I could not even jump out; I was completely trapped inside the car. It might not sound like it is very fast, but when you have no control over the speed and you're completely stuck inside, it’s terrifying,” he was quoted as saying.
South African-born billionaire Elon Musk’s EV company, Tesla is also notoriously known for its peculiar accidents. Its popular autopilot feature is said to be one of the causes of such accidents.
In November of 2022, a Tesla struck and killed a motorcyclist and high school girl.
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