Driving to Brisbane airport with my daughter this morning, I discovered that silent Teslas can surprise animals. We had a close encounter with a cat on a suburban road. It obviously didn’t look like it when crossing the road, and maybe it couldn’t hear the nondescript vehicle either. I braked; it looked up the road and then hurried to the safety of the other side. I will never forget the look on his face – it was a surprised kitty!
You can watch it here and watch it jump the fence to get to safety here. No cats were injured in the making of this video.
It reminded me of other interactions between animals and Teslas. My friend David tells me about an encounter he had with a… goanna in rural Queensland.
“We came down the side road from Kenilworth to Mapleton. As I turned a corner into the steep single-lane section, a very large Goanna rose out of the long grass to cross the road just ahead of us. I braked hard but couldn’t completely avoid it and ran over its tail, taking some paint off the front spoiler – thankfully no other damage. I saw him run off through the grass, so I think he survived with maybe a broken tailbone or two and probably tells the story to his friends about the silent car.
Do you remember the murder mystery that was solved because the cat was sleeping on the warm hood of a recently driven car? That blew up the alibi and cheated the killer. We will, Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot will no longer be able to use that trick. However, my friend David has found that possums like the heat generated by the charger and find it a good place to sleep.
Possum on charger. Photo courtesy of David Nye.
Sadly, my beloved Himalayan cat has passed away. He loved sleeping on the hood of my ICE car for warmth (and covered it with his chocolate hair). I don’t think he would have approved of Tess, and he certainly couldn’t have sat on the charger to take a nap.
Has your Tesla, or any other electric vehicle, had an interesting interaction with our animal friends? If so, would love to hear about it. Remember: silent Teslas surprise animals!
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