Elon Musk changed the electric vehicle market, launched a Tesla Roadster into space and wants to dig tunnels to ease traffic.
Musk can claim another big accomplishment: He’s the first celebrity to crash an Arcimoto.
On an episode of the tech-related podcast HyperChange, Arcimoto founder and president Mark Frohnmayer talked about Musk and Tesla’s stance on allowing the Eugene company to use their battery technology. Although Musk crashed what’s called a production Arcimoto, apparently it wasn’t the first-ever Arcimoto crash, there have been two others, Frohnmayer later said on Twitter.
So how does Musk, a man who’s survived a near-fatal motorcycle accident and is big on safety for Tesla cars, crash an Arcimoto three-wheeler?
Mark Frohnmayer said on the podcast that Musk jumped into Silicon Valley investor Adeo Ressi’s Arcimoto and drove it into a brick wall. He said Musk had apparently hit the accelerator and slammed into a brick wall. “Adeo said he was just being a dipshit,” he added. “It’s still entirely unclear how it happened.”
On Sept. 24 (also known as Tesla Battery Day), Musk announced some of his innovations to the Tesla battery that could change the industry. An auto engineer, Sandy Munro, who’s known for breaking down innovations to see how they work and how to make improvements, asked Musk if he could help with Arcimoto.
Musk said no on Twitter because Tesla’s batteries aren’t safe for three-wheel vehicles.
Can’t support 3 wheel vehicles. Not safe enough.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2020
Regardless of Musk’s driving ability, Frohnmayer said what he really wants are Tesla’s battery cells. “What they’ve done is magical,” he added. “You can build four Arcimotos with the amount of material in one Tesla.” He adds for those who really care about sustainable transportation, you get four times the on-road efficiency.
During the podcast, Frohnmayer and his mother Lynn Frohnmayer talked about how safe Arcimotos are, despite Musk’s experience. Someone driving an Arcimoto vehicle, Frohnmayer said, knows they have to drive defensively because “if you’re T-boned, you’re fucked.”
Lynn Frohnmayer, who’s possibly Arcimoto’s biggest fan and the company’s first-ever customer, said when she first bought an Arcimoto, it sat in her garage for a few weeks because she was nervous about driving it due to the vulnerabilities of driving it when the average car is so bigger and deadlier. And she said she felt guilty driving one of those average cars to the grocery store to get a few things.
But now that she’s used to the Arcimoto, she said she has fun driving it. “I make up excuses to go out in the Arcimoto,” Lynn said. “I love it when I forget something for dinner. I think, ‘Oh golly, I forgot that one ingredient I have to have. I’d better get in my Arcimoto and go to the grocery store.’”
Hopefully Musk drive won’t drive it to the grocery store.
To watch the episode of HyperChange, visit YouTube.
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