Comment by Bender
3 hours ago
This is odd since most cars require stepping down on the brake pedal to start the car. Even my UTV (side-by-side) requires this. I can't even remember the last vehicle I owned that did not require this. If my foot starts sinking down it will be obvious my brakes are failing. Cutting just enough into the last part of the brake line that is flexible hydraulic line to burst after a few miles would require quite some skill and a lot of practice. These lines have anywhere from 800 to 2000 pounds per square inch of pressure. Detailed high resolution pictures of the cut would be useful.
For what it's worth if you lose your brakes, downshift repeatedly until you are slow enough to find a softer landing zone. Rubbing tires up against the curb if there are no cars, bushes, rubbing up against the side of a hill, soft soil if available. If your car does not have an option to do this trade it in.
[Edit] I am not defending Elon or his orbiter zealots. Crazy evil stuff happens all the time but I think we are due some pictures and videos of the evidence. So far all we have is a story and things someone could have done to their own car. There are also a high prevalence of ring cameras that could capture his visitors. Cutting brake lines or wires of air bags is so oddly specific and prone to error that it could be an episode of Murder She Wrote about a botched assassination and the Sheriff is skeptical. Usually whistleblowers die from "self inflicted" GSW's to remove any loose ends or unknowns FWIW.
Removing the airbag impact sensor and then rewiring it to bypass the fault detection, without triggering the airbags, is also indicative of someone who has extensive experience in something no one should normally have experience in.
That's shitbox-101 level stuff (if you're in a dumb state where they'd rather you monkey with stuff to turn a dash light off than just rock the light).
I've owned plenty of shitboxes and done my share of goofy fixes, but fucking around with integral safety equipment like airbag wiring is where I draw the line and get it fixed for real. It's one thing if it's only ever you in the car and you don't care about your own safety, but if other people are ever in the car they're going to rightfully expect you've at least got the safety equipment working to factory standard.
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I would like to know the history of this car. I'm not doubting the claims, but a plausible explanation is that he bought the car used, possibly with a salvage title, and the flipper he bought it from bypassed the blown airbag. Airbags are expensive, and it's not uncommon to just replace the steering wheel cover where it went off.
Many cars (especially ICE cars) may not have operational brake boost when you first get in to them — the vacuum that the power brakes rely on can easily be gone. So you step on the brakes without assist, then you start the engine, and then you have power brakes after a second or so.
I can easily imagine that stepping on a brake pedal with cut lines and no assist doesn’t feel that weird.
Also, plenty of people are not really tuned in to how their cars feel.
So what you're saying is, we need to abolish ICE and go electric?
Many cars (especially ICE cars) may not have operational brake boost when you first get in to them
I warm up my engine, to the point of annoying armchair quarterbacks on HN. If my brake line was cut it would be very obvious within seconds. Exception would be a partial cut that leave a millimeter of line not cut but that would take some serious skill and practice.
Okay, good on you, but do you think every other person does this as well? I wasn't even aware warming up the engine would change my brakes until this thread. Honestly I thought the brake pedal was electronically connected to the actual brakes too so I didn't expect you could feel a cut line either.
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Depending on the model it just requires activation of the brake light switch, which is a very light touch. And if it's an EV or PHEV with blended braking you're not pushing against the master cylinder anyway.
You are right to be skeptical here. Brake lines are just rubber hydraulic lines and fail in "normal ways" frequently. Without ANY forensic details on "the cut" it is very likely coincidence going viral "because Elon"
How the actual fuck do you coincidentally end up with failing brakes right after a controversial social media post? The braking system is designed to be one of the most resilient systems in a vehicle. A coincident like that sounds a cosmic ray bitflip level of rare.
Among crashes where a "vehicle defect" is identified as the critical reason for a crash, brake problems account for 22% of them. It is a normal failure.
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It's painful to say it, but it's more likely that it's a false flag attack than a random fraying.
And now let's talk about the epidemic of cancer in the Trump administration....
I've never needed to press the brake pedal until my current car. Just the clutch pedal. It's my first automatic.
It also doesn't require a hard press, just enough,
I think it'd be fairly straight forward to damage the rubber hoses near the calipers so that failure was imminent but not immediate.
My 2017 RAV4 doesn't. I think "most" is an exaggeration
https://assets.sia.toyota.com/publications/en/om-s/OM42752U/...
p. 196, step 3: Firmly depress the brake pedal.
Yes, my riding lawnmower manual also tells me not to clear debris from the blade while the mower is running. Yet somehow I don't think the mower will stop if I do.
I don't know if this model has a brake interlock on the ignition or not, but the fact that it's part of the instructions for starting the vehicle doesn't imply the presence of one.
My 2006 Baja and 99 Acura Integra both don't have one. My 2024 Ioniq however will start in "accessory mode". There are plenty of cars on the road today that don't.
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You are probably in the top 1% of individuals by how perceptive you are about your car.
> I think we are due some pictures and videos of the evidence.
Yes, they should definitely prioritize posting pictures that only a fraction of a fraction of people will be able to understand or interpret at all, solely so that the people who want to pretend the accumulated things in the story didn't actually occur (or aren't that bad) can point to things they don't understand to naysay them. Brilliant.
I’ve owned at least a dozen cars, none have required the brake pedal press to start.
Pressing the clutch is a North American thing in my experience. All my other vehicles didn’t need it to start.
My car doesn't require stepping on the brake to start but this car does sound like a newer one with weird "features" like that. I think the following car modifications indicate maliciousness and competency in the sabotage that could explain lack of alerting the driver,
>Since then, Berulis has laid low. He filed a police report, included in the suit and viewed by WIRED, and had the car seen by a mechanic who, according to the report, found “that the driver-side front impact/airbag sensor had also been removed but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together, completing the circuit in a manner that prevented the vehicle from detecting or logging the missing component, while also preventing the vehicle from activating its safety protocols, alerting the driver, or engaging limp mode.” The police report also indicates that fingerprints had been found on Berulis’ car.
> newer one with weird "features" like that
Anything with push button start. It has been around a while.
Now if only somebody involved in DOGE had all sorts of connections to people highly experienced with cars... maybe even by running a major carmaker himself?
> and had the car seen by a mechanic who, according to the report, found “that the driver-side front impact/airbag sensor had also been removed but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together, completing the circuit in a manner that prevented the vehicle from detecting or logging the missing component, while also preventing the vehicle from activating its safety protocols, alerting the driver, or engaging limp mode.
It’s quite obvious that this job was done by a professional if the allegations are true.
And I’m not personally about to doubt that our current government wouldn’t stoop to that level.
Are you just here to doubt the story?
No, I am skeptical without pictures and videos. I've also replaced a lot of brakes. A picture is worth a thousand words.
> a threatening note had been taped to his door, including photos of him walking his dog that appeared to have been taken by a drone
Nothing suspicious here