WORLDWIDE TAXI FOCUS from France
PARIS FIRM BANS TESLA MODEL 3 FROM ITS FLEET AFTER ONE LOST CONTROL
Paris taxi company G7 has suspended its fleet of 37 Tesla Model 3 cars after one lost control due
to a suspected
technical malfunction killing one person and injuring 20 others. Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into charges of manslaughter and unintentional injury. The Daily Mail reports that G7 Deputy Chief Executive Yann Ricordel told Reuters the taxi driver, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, was taking his family to a restaurant on Saturday in the Tesla when he lost control of the vehicle and smashed into a van. The driver then violently collided with a cyclist on Rue D’Ivry, before continuing down the street and mowing over two other pedestrians. The mayor of the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Jérôme Coumet, is saying the accident was caused by a technical failure of the vehicle, while Tesla stands firm it was the driver who is to blame. G7 is working with the government to conduct a full police investigation into the accident to determine if it was human error or due to a technical failure of the vehicle. “Today, we have two divergent views on the subject. We will maintain the suspension of the Tesla Model 3 while the inves- tigation is ongoing, as a safety measure for our drivers, customers and other road users,” Ricordel said. The driver of the Tesla said the car, for no apparent reason, accelerated sharply while the brakes were no longer responding. The accident happened at 9pm local time in the middle of a large crossroads in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Videos taken at the scene show a mangled back Tesla and a white van, which was also smashed, in the road that is littered with glass and other parts from the cars. The taxi is said to have struck a glass container that was thrown into the air and a traffic light. Pedestrians can also be seen in the middle of the road, with some laying down among the debris on the cold pavement, but people in the Tesla were not among those injured. A Tesla spokesperson told Le Parisien that the company remains at the disposal of the authorities to give them the data which it can have remotely on the vehicle concerned. Ricordel said the Tesla Model 3 owners in its fleet would be
72
fully compensated for lost earnings during the suspension and that the company was looking for alternatives so the drivers could resume driving for G7 as soon as possible.
from Thailand
BANGKOK’S TAXI GRAVEYARD BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE WITH MINI-GARDENS
An open-air parking lot in Bangkok has become a gardener’s haven in an attempt to feed out-of-work drivers during the coronavirus pandemic. Euro News reports that this mass graveyard houses many of the city’s most flamboyantly coloured taxi cabs which have been left idle since tourism to Thailand declined at the beginning of 2020. Instead, the Ratchapruk Taxi Garage has taken matters into its own hands by growing vegetable patches on car roofs and farming frogs in piles of abandoned car tyres. Following harsh lockdown restrictions in the Thai capital, the taxi cooperative has seen the majority of its drivers quit Bangkok and return to their home villages. “This is our last option,” Thapakorn Assawalertkun, one of the company owners said, adding that many of the vehicles still had large loans outstanding on them. “We figured we’d grow vegetables and farm frogs on the roofs of these taxis. It won’t damage them since most of have already been damaged beyond repair. The aubergines, chillies, cucumbers, courgettes and basil grown on the cars - along with the frogs - will help feed the out-of-work drivers and employees. And if the crops have a good yield, they plan to sell any surplus at local markets.
JANUARY 2022
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