In an interview with Teslarati, an early Tesla Model 3 owner, shared her story of how her Tesla saved her and her family’s lives when they were hit by another car. Anna Febiana was picking up her son and daughter from school and were just minutes away from their home when they were struck by a BMW.
Anna took delivery of her Model 3 in December of 2018 and the accident happened on October 1, 2019. Although it happened two years ago, this was a hard story for Anna to share due to the trauma but she believed that people need to know that her Tesla saved her and her family’s lives.
“That was a Thursday afternoon and the crazy thing is that people think accidents happen on the freeway or the busy street. No, it was two miles away from my house at a quiet intersection. I was hit by a Series 5 BMW. I think it’s an older version, like the early 2000s. The car was bigger than my Tesla Model 3.”
The impact caused her car to spin twice and crash into a wooden street pole that fell onto the roof over her Model 3. It was the glass roof that prevented the pole from fully penetrating the roof. Although it left a hole, the glass held.
Tesla glass is a key safety design in its vehicles and it can not only protect drivers from UV rays but it can take on four times the weight of the car. This fact has been proven in multiple stories of accidents where miraculously, the occupants in the car survived.
“I don’t think we could have come out of the car to tell this story if it’s not for stable the Model 3 was. But also especially for my son, if it was not for how strong the roof of the car was, I don’t think he would be here,” Anna told me over the phone.
Anna’s daughter was sitting on the back passenger’s side where the impact occurred. Although she and her daughter had concussions, there were no bruises.
“The back wheel on the passenger side was completely crooked. My daughter was sitting there and because of how good the airbags were inside, I believe that saved my daughter. Both my daughter and I had concussions. My daughter had it a little bit worse than I had it. But there were no bruises on my daughter. It’s a miracle.”
Anna told me that she believed that God protected her that day through how safe the Model 3 was. She also didn’t realize how bad the accident was.
“After the accident, my son had all this corn-sized glass on top of his head and I didn’t have time to analyze anything. I was so shocked. My kids were in shock. My son had a bloody nose and half of his face was swollen.”
At that moment, her focus was on her children, not the accident itself. So she didn’t realize how bad it was until afterward. The car, she told me, didn’t flip over and they were able to leave the car.
When she saw the car after the accident, that’s when the gravity of the situation set in. She realized that all of the airbags had been deployed. And there was a big dent in the glass roof and a hole. The hole was above where her son was sitting. It was then she realized where those corn-sized pieces of glass came from.
“I don’t know if any other car has airbags the way Tesla designs the car with the airbags but with the strong impact, I had the side airbags deployed. The back–and I believe, as I said, saved my kids. That and how strong the car was.”
“My daughter got out of that crash with just a concussion. It’s a testament to how well built the car was.”
“When my car spun and stopped, the back of the car hit a street pole. I’ve never seen a wooden street pole anymore. I believe that the pole is the last of a kind in the city. It’s a wooden pole that held three different street signs. It was so heavy and I think that’s why the glass broke but it didn’t break completely.”
“Coming back and looking at the car, I got chills. Had it been any other glass or roof, I don’t think my son would be here today. He was sitting under that pole.”
Anna was the first person in her circle of friends to buy a Tesla. Many of her friends said that she was fancy and no, she was just tired of paying for service and maintenance and wanted to contribute to the planet by driving an EV.
After the accident, she told me that many of her friends had skeptical questions. She told them that she was alive because her car was a Model 3. And of course, she was going to get another Tesla.
“People need to know. This is a good car. It’s fancy for some people. But it’s safe and I will get it again. And we got another Model 3.”
Note: Johnna is a Tesla shareholder and supports its mission.
Your feedback is important. If you have any comments, or concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.
Elon Musk revealed in a post on X that “Permits were impossible to get,” explaining the fate of The Boring Company’s most ambitious East Coast proposal.
The comment responded to a query about what became of his July 20, 2017 announcement that he had “just received verbal govt approval” for an underground Hyperloop connecting New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., capable of carrying passengers from the Big Apple to the Nation’s Capital in just 29 minutes.
The Boring Company receives verbal ‘approval’ to build NY to DC Hyperloop tunnel
The 2017 post, which envisioned city-center stations and multiple elevators in each city, sparked immediate scrutiny. Local and state officials in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and D.C. said they had no knowledge of any approval. A White House spokesperson confirmed only “promising conversations” about the transformative infrastructure.
Musk clarified shortly after that there was “still a lot of work” to do for formal approvals.
@cybrtrkguy Permits were impossible to get
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
Limited progress followed, as Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s administration issued a conditional utility permit and supported work near Fort Meade. In 2018, Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary permit for site preparation and excavation on a vacant lot at 53 New York Ave. NE in the NoMa neighborhood, which The Boring Company said could become a station.
A draft environmental assessment for a D.C.-Baltimore segment was released in 2019. Yet, by April 2021, the company had removed the project from its website, and the Federal Highway Administration reported receiving no indication of further interest. Communication with Maryland officials had ceased.
The full corridor would have required coordination among the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the Federal Highway Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and other agencies.
Environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, utility clearances, and approvals for novel infrastructure added to the overall complexity of the project and its approval.
Speculation on the permitting barriers centers around a few factors, but a multi-state, multi-level route involving unproven high-speed vacuum-tube technology inherently triggers exhaustive safety, environmental, and engineering reviews that can stretch for years, even for conventional projects.
There are also other elements, of course, like officials who may face political exposure if a privately funded, untested system encountered anything such as cost overruns, delays, or safety issues. On the outset of this project, there were limited things such as engineering plans or demonstrated technology maturity, which also added to the potential skepticism.
The East Coast vision for Boring Co., once framed as a privately funded revolution that could reshape Northeast travel, quietly ended without construction of the promised network. Musk’s recent statement frames the outcome as a regulatory impasse, unfortunate but not unexpected.
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk reveals why Boring Co’s biggest East Coast project never happened
SpaceX reveals how its 1 Million AI satellite network will work and prevent space collisions
Tesla Roadster: Three configs, one can fly, 0-60 in 0.8 seconds
