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Tesla driver who drove Model Y off a cliff with family onboard will not stand trial

Credit: Bay Area Firefighter/Facebook

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2 years ago

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A California doctor who drove his family’s Tesla Model Y off Devil’s Slide in January last year will not stand trial. As per Judge Susan Jakubowski, Dharmesh Patel is suitable for mental health diversion. All criminal charges filed against Patel have also been indefinitely suspended. 

The incident surrounding Patel and his family shocked social media, particularly since the family’s Tesla Model Y ended up falling over 250 feet at Devil’s Slide. The area is dangerous, and rescuers noted that they were expecting the worst since the all-electric crossover fell from such a great height. Thanks in no small part to the Model Y’s safety, Patel, his wife, and his two children were able to survive the fall. 

As per previous reports, Patel’s wife informed authorities that the incident was not an accident. Patel himself admitted that he intentionally drove his Model Y off Devil’s Slide while his family was inside, as noted in a KRON4 report. In a comment to the news outlet, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe stated that prosecutors made a “very strenuous objection” to the idea of Patel receiving a mental health diversion. 

During the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Dominique Davis stated that Patel has schizoaffective disorder. Davis also noted that Patel should stand trial because he attempted to kill his family. The lawyer also argued that Patel would pose a danger to society.

“(Patel) was hearing footsteps at night. He feared his children would be sold into sex slavery. He carried a knife around for three days. None of this was based on reality… and the defendant felt compelled to act. He drove his entire family over a cliff. It’s a very high and deathly drop. What is most frightening is, no one saw this coming,” the attorney said. 

While the case against Patel seemed strong, his wife testified that she did not want her husband to be prosecuted. She also noted that her children miss their father and they want Patel to come back home. Defense attorney Joshua Bentley took such an angle during the case, arguing that “not everyone who commits a crime is a criminal.”

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Following a three-day trial in Mental Health Diversion Court, Judge Susan Jakubowski ruled in Patel’s favor. She also agreed that the right diagnosis for Patel’s mental illness was major depressive disorder. The District Attorney’s Office described Judge Jakubowski’s decision in the following. 

“Weighing all factors, the court determined the defendant was suitable and granted the defense request for mental health diversion. Judge Jakubowski also ruled that the defendant will remain in the county jail for several weeks for what was called a ‘bridging period’ before release in the community,” the District Attorney’s Office wrote. 

Following his release from jail, Patel will be required to wear a GPS monitor. He is also expected to live in his parents’ house in Belmont and test twice every week to show medication compliance. He must also abstain from alcohol and drugs, and surrender his driver’s license and passport. Patel is expected to return to court on July 1, 2024. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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SpaceX turned a heralding moment for Starship into its greatest moment

Starship reached orbit despite losing an engine, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites on Flight 14.

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40 minutes ago

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September 28, 2026

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SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time on Monday, and for a few nail-biting minutes it looked like it wouldn’t. During ascent on Flight 14, one of Ship 41’s six Raptor engines shut down early, and SpaceX’s livestream host Dan Huot told viewers the team had decided not to commit to orbit. Minutes later, after what Huot described as a lot of conversation in the control room, the final poll came back in favor, and a roughly 19 second burn of a single Raptor pushed the ship into orbit about 170 miles up.

The reversal matters because SpaceX had written the exit ramp into the mission plan. The company said it would only fire the orbital insertion burn if flight controllers confirmed enough backup hardware remained for the deorbit burn, a condition Teslarati laid out ahead of the flight. Losing an engine was exactly the scenario that rule was built for.

Pressing forward fits Elon Musk’s history. Falcon 1 failed three straight times before its fourth launch reached orbit in 2008, with SpaceX nearly out of money, and Starship was developed by flying prototypes until they broke. What changed this year SpaceX going public, and with $SPCX sliding below its IPO price in July when Flight 13 slipped, the short interest climbed significantly, as Teslarati reported at the time. A Starship potentially lost today with revenue generating next-gen Starlink satellites aboard would have landed directly on shareholders.

That pressure showed up after orbit. SpaceX cut a flight planned to last nearly 10 hours to about three, moving splashdown from west of Chile to the North Pacific near Hawaii. SpaceX gave no reason, though Musk said this month the company was being extremely cautious about debris risk. The single Raptor for deorbit worked, and Ship 41 completed its flip and landing burn before breaking apart in the water, an outcome SpaceX expected. Musk has structured SpaceX’s governance to shield long term bets from market pressure.

The payload is the bigger business story. Musk posted that all 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed and are “operating nominally.” Each V3 is rated for about 1 Tbps of downlink and 160 Gbps of uplink, so this single launch adds roughly 26 Tbps, about 10 times what a Falcon 9 load of V2 Mini satellites adds. The V3 is too large for Falcon 9, making Starship the only vehicle that can build out the planned 100,000 satellite constellation, at up to 60 per flight once it reaches routine service. Unlike the 20 V3 units on Flight 13, which reentered on a suborbital path, these will raise their orbits and could begin serving customers within weeks and bring in hundreds of millions of additional dollars in projected Starlink revenue.

SpaceX has already begun winding down Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida in favor of Starship. Reported targets put Flight 15 as early as October 19, leaving about three weeks to diagnose Monday’s engine shutdown before the next orbital attempt.

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Tesla Cybercab fleet doubles to well over 100 units

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2 hours ago

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September 28, 2026

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(Credit: Teslarati)

Tesla quietly doubled the size of its Cybercab fleet within the Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, over the weekend to well over 100 units.

The move not only establishes more of the steering-wheel-less and pedal-less vehicles within the ride-sharing fleet Tesla has been operating for a year, but it also solidifies a more robust Robotaxi fleet as a whole.

Riders started receiving notifications from the Robotaxi app that stated: “Cybercab fleet has doubled: more rides available.”

Tesla first launched rides in the Cybercab in early September, although the Robotaxi fleet has been active for over a year, as rides began last Summer. Cybercab is truly Tesla’s most crucial vehicle release yet, as it is the first car any company has built that is geared toward full-fledged and end-to-end autonomy, never needing human intervention for anything.

Only available in Austin at the current time, Cybercab has two seats and has been spotted testing around various U.S. states and regions; Tesla plans to deploy the Cybercab in various U.S. cities in the coming months as a best-case scenario.

Tesla Cybercab gets initial tie-in to localized, in-house cathode plant

The availability of the Cybercab has doubled from just 58 units last Monday to 125 the following Friday. Marking a substantial increase in Cybercab availability, the additional ride-sharing units are more than welcome, as wait times for Cybercabs, especially, were quite high.

The dramatic increase is a sign that demand for Robotaxi is growing and Tesla is feeling more confident that its driverless ride-hailing suite, especially its Full Self-Driving software, is able to handle any traffic situation without explicit direction or supervision from a human being.

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Tesla has a ‘no human contact’ approach for Semi production

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4 hours ago

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September 28, 2026

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Tesla is advancing a fully automated pipeline for the 4680 battery cells used in its all-electric Semi, spanning production from Giga Texas through shipment and direct consumption on the line at the new dedicated Semi Factory in Sparks, Nevada.

The approach was outlined by Tesla at its September 24 Semi Handover event, which launched high-volume production at its new 1.8-million-square-foot plant in Nevada, which sits adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada and is designed for an annual production rate of 50,000 trucks per year.

After years of pilot builds and what was a four-year-long redesign of the truck, Tesla moved the Semi from 2170 batteries to its in-house 4680 cells, which are made in Austin. The change cuts battery mass and total energy while holding range, a key step in making volume production a realistic possibility.

Cells will leave Giga Texas in trailers, and at the Nevada Semi plant, Tesla intends for a dedicated line to unload those trailers automatically, station the cells, and feed them straight into pack and vehicle assembly.

Both Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, and Dan Priestley, the Head of Tesla’s Semi program, described the goal as a “zero human touch point” from the moment the trailer arrives in Texas until a finished Semi drives off the production line in Nevada.

The unloading system that Moravy and Priestley described is just one piece of a much broader automation push. The plant uses what Tesla calls the highest-capacity electric monorail conveyance in vehicle manufacturing, carrying frames-in-white simultaneously. Powder-coating replaces conventional paint, and many processes that would normally require operators have been designed out.

Tesla has repeatedly said that “the best part is no part,” and the cell-handling plan extends that philosophy from the cell factory floor in Texas all the way to final assembly in Nevada.

If executed as described, the closed-loop flow would reduce labor, handling damage, and inventory buffers while tightening quality control on a component that represents a large share of the truck’s cost and weight. It also shortens the physical and organizational distance between two factories separated by more than 1,200 miles. The Semi itself now shares a bar-wound stator and other components with the Cybertruck, further linking Tesla’s passenger and commercial production systems.

High-volume output is expected to ramp gradually after the first trucks left the new line in April 2026. Early customers include PepsiCo, DHL, and U.S. Foods. Whether the automated trailer-to-line process reaches the promised zero-touch standard will be visible in the coming months as production scales. For Tesla, the Semi factory is another test of how far it can push “the machine that builds the machine” across sites.

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