Tesla Model X SUV’s Autopilot Drives Man To ER: Joshua Neally’s Life Saved During Pulmonary Embolism


The electric vehicle known as the Tesla Model X with the doors that look like “X” wings is being credited with saving the life of a man named Joshua Neally. Joshua recently purchased his Tesla Model X — and now the autopilot of Neally’s Tesla might have been the best purchase that the Springfield, Missouri-based attorney from Branson ever purchased.

As reported by KY3, which has a video of Joshua driving the Tesla Model X that Neally bought only two week ago, Joshua was driving his usual route on Highway 65 when he began to experience health problems. Neally called it the worst kind of pain he’d ever felt, but he trusted his Tesla Model X to get him to the emergency room without swerving off the side of the road.

Joshua didn’t want to waste precious time by pulling over to the side of the road and waiting for an ambulance to find him and transport him to the hospital.

In the video, Neally is shown opening the hood of the Tesla Model X to reveal the fact that the SUV doesn’t have the usual things seen in non-electric cars, like gas engines. Joshua especially appreciated the autopilot feature of the Tesla Model X, which lets drivers go for as long as four-minute periods without touching the steering wheel.

Joshua found it necessary when he found himself driving home to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. Neally ended up feeling pain from a pulmonary embolism, which blocks the arteries in the lungs, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is a condition that could have killed Joshua, right inside his Tesla Model X.

[Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images]
The autopilot feature kept Neally on the road while Joshua drove the final two blocks to the hospital himself. Joshua shudders to imagine how his health conditions might have played out if Neally were driving a vehicle that didn’t have the same autopilot features as his Tesla Model X.

Neally remarked that even if he had fainted at the wheel of his Tesla, the Model X with the autopilot is designed to pull the driver safely to the side of the road. Despite the feature, Tesla warns drivers to stay attentive with their hands on the wheel.

“It’s the ultimate gadget. It’s the coolest technology I’ve ever seen I would say, let alone owned. I would characterize it as the ultimate cruise control. I’m very thankful I had it for this experience. If something like that happens where I become unconscious or incapacitated while I’m driving, I’m not going to cross over the interstate and slam into somebody or slam into one of the big rock walls. It’s not going to be perfect, there’s no technology thats perfect, but I think the measure is that it’s better and safer.

“A little past Highlandville it just hit where it was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever had. It was kinda getting scary. I called my wife and just said ‘something’s wrong’ and I couldn’t breathe, I was gasping, kind of hyperventilating. I just knew I had to get there, to the ER.”

The Tesla Model X has the autopilot mode isn’t considered a “self-driving” car.

[Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images]
As seen in the top photo above, a man who donned a face mask got out of a Tesla Model X at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

With the Missouri man possibly owing his life to the Tesla Model X’s autopilot feature, the SUV is getting more attention online. One sample comment from social media can be seen below.

“Wasn’t a fan of the new Tesla Model X P90D until I saw it in real life… Pretty cool and futuristic ride.”

[Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Images]

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