California leads the United States in electric car ownership. Over 1 million of the tailpipe-pollution-free vehicles were registered to drivers in 2023, five times more than the next two highest-volume states, Florida and Texas, according to figures from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shared by the Department of Energy.
However, that doesn't mean that everyone in the Golden State is fully on board with the technology.
Wham Baam Teslacam, a YouTube channel that shares footage of various incidents involving Teslas, posted a video of a driver in California who was forced to stop in the middle of a road when it seemed like a vehicle coming in the opposite direction was about to hit them head-on.
After pulling into the Tesla driver's lane, the pickup driver stopped, got out of the car, and started to approach the EV. When the Tesla started to reverse away, the pickup driver picked up a glass item from the road and threw it at the car.
Luckily, no damage was done, as the glass bounced off the rear tire and shattered, but the Tesla driver was understandably shaken up. They were about to start their shift as an Uber driver but instead took the night off to recover.
What some angry drivers of gas-guzzlers — referred to as "Tesla Karens" by one commenter on YouTube — fail to understand is that Teslas are covered in cameras, so road rage incidents such as this are going to be recorded. That will make it a whole lot easier for police and insurance companies to punish the driver responsible. "They're all cowards in real life," as another commenter observed.
It's unclear what spurred this incident, but drivers of Teslas and other electric vehicles are increasingly documenting evidence of anti-EV sentiments. Whether it's the cutting of cables at charging stations or dirty-fuel-powered cars purposefully parked in EV charging spots, restricting refueling access, negative reactions to the technology are sadly quite common.
But EVs provide a number of benefits if people could countenance letting go of their internal combustion engine machines. They are far better for the planet over their life cycles than gas-powered cars — even when considering the mining of rare metals required for battery construction — and also produce zero planet-warming emissions when out on the road, require comparatively little maintenance, and are far cheaper to refuel.
If the rise of EVs continues, though, gas-guzzling cars will soon be in the minority, and angry ICEV drivers will have a hard time keeping up with all their perceived motoring enemies. The planet will also breathe a sigh of relief, as significantly fewer polluting gases will be released into the atmosphere.
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