KayLeadfoot @ KayLeadfoot @fedia.io

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3 days ago

LOL, I dishonestly flagged it for the reader to review themselves? Wow, I must be a real piece of shit.

So anyhow, you're an honest person, so if I'm a lying bastard with some non-specific ulterior motive (or I just really fuckin suck at math), what's your number when you run the stats with one fewer fire fatality in the Cybertruck column? Does it change the overall meaning of the study, or nah?

Alright, boss.

If you can't believe a PHD holder on their subject of expertise, and you won't run your own analysis, I guess you'll believe whatever you like no matter what anybody else says. Ok! I'm fine with that if you're fine with that.

I should probably explain: I do find it acceptable to include all the deaths in the Cybertruck... simply because 100% of the fatalities have been in Cybertrucks that burned. Isn't that absolutely AGGRAVATINGLY ridiculous? That alone is worth the headline. Car fires are not common in 2025. Every single car built in 2025 should be safer than the Ford fucking Pinto!

EldritchFemininity: Describes being hired to build the human centipede, but out of Ford Pintos

Also EldritchFemininity: Refuses to elaborate; leaves.

No, that's not what I said at all. Get your quote right. I said "fuck it, we ball."

Serious tho, if you're curious why I did that, read up the thread, I explain it. Nothin nefarious (I hope)

I'm just copy pasting from above, but here's my thoughts on that:

"People often ask about me including the Las Vegas case, so maybe I answer that concern, too. That's the methodology - I set out to count every fire death for the Cybertruck that I could confirm through reliable news sources. And I struggled with that one. I worried if I didn't include it, I'd be open to the opposite criticism - folks would say "wait these stats suck, I literally saw a guy die on the news in a flaming Cybertruck, and y'all didn't count it, so these numbers can't be right." So, sort of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. It was controversial, I knew it would be, so I flagged it in the article so folks could make their own decision about it. Ultimately, it didn't meaningfully change the final findings. I've run the numbers with and without it, and the story is fundamentally the same either way."

You're back! I've seen this article posted a couple different places (not by me), and you keep finding it! And posting an image of one of the many data tables from the same study.

So, after seeing it a couple times, I do have a couple of ideas about it:

• You should also include a screen grab of the page of the report that specifies the 27 deaths due to the notoriously fatal design flaw in the Pinto that is included in my article.
• If you read my article, I'm specifically comparing the fire death rate due to the notoriously fatal design flaw. It's specified in plain English in the methodology section. If you don't like the clearly stated methodology, re-run the study with a methodology you do like, IDGAF.
• The reason for that methodology: 100% of the Cybertruck fires involved ONLY the Cybertruck. Which is weird, single car fire accidents are not common. The Ford Pintos, I could only verify that SOME of the fires were caused ONLY by the Ford Pinto. I wanted an apples-to-apples comparison as best as I could make it. If you don't like any aspect of this, like the vehicle totals or whatever, you can always re-run the numbers like I told you to in the original article.

People often ask about me including the Las Vegas case, so maybe I answer that concern, too. That's the methodology - I set out to count every fire death for the Cybertruck that I could confirm through reliable news sources. And I struggled with that one. I worried if I didn't include it, I'd be open to the opposite criticism - folks would say "wait these stats suck, I literally saw a guy die on the news in a flaming Cybertruck, and y'all didn't count it, so these numbers can't be right." So, sort of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation. It was controversial, I knew it would be, so I flagged it in the article so folks could make their own decision about it. Ultimately, it didn't meaningfully change the final findings. I've run the numbers with and without it, and the story is fundamentally the same either way.

Like, I'm a comedian who tells pickup truck jokes most the time. I've linked in the original article to a very credible scientist who re-ran my numbers more rigorously and they came to the same conclusions, with the added benefit of confirming the sample sizes were statistically significant. Take their word for it, not mine. Or hell, run the numbers yourself, you got all the same sources I do.

Yeah. Yeah...

Quiet down, Zangoose... You'll get us all-expenses paid tickets to Guantanamo Bay

No worries, boss. Not taken as mean or unfair.

Out of curiosity... what credential would make you trust an automotive journalist more? If it's academic paper, I'm S.O.L.

The About Us, I didn't realize folks would have a hard time finding it if it were in the header! What do I know about websites, right. But I can fix that, I'll duplicate the About Us entry into the dropdown, that should clear up any confusion.

I'm not trying to win you over, that's not really my bag... but you might find this interesting. I've had a couple folks, some with recognizable names, reach out to me through the website. The pitch is a little different each time, but they all seem to want to know my name, they share your view that it ISN'T Kay Leadfoot. I wonder why they're so interested about that? Haha, I'm sure they wouldn't publish it if I told them, they seem trustworthy... Some folks start with a more direct approach, and they just hit me with the threats from the word go, and THEN get to the "we'll see you soon" part. I wonder what those two groups would do if one knew who I was, and the other WANTED to know?

Ain't that funny? I tell jokes about cars, who cares who I am? Apparently, several folks care, some of them real ornery about it. It's less funny when you think about the actual journalists who don't have the same options... the wave after wave of threats probably has a chilling effect on their coverage, god knows what that does for a democracy in general if your press core is afraid to speak their mind and follow facts wherever they go in case some crazies come knocking.

Thanks for the feedback, by the by, it helps.

I looked over the data pretty closely: looks like, irrespective of your bits, if you were recorded as certain genders by first responders, that data was later purged from the federal government database. Your accurate gender was replaced with "Sex: Not Reported."

I suspect if the NHTSA knew what bits the car crash victims had, they would have updated the data with that, but the first responders didn't collect that data so they instead erased the data they did collect (obviously the police aren't peeking in your pants... yet).

I want just ONE YEAR to go by without a foreign rocket landing in Poland (or any other NATO nation but especially Poland)! I feel like this is not a hard ask, and reality is really struggling to make it happen.

This just got suggested to me in my random feed and it delights me - thank you!

I just discovered... a scientist tested my findings! Well that's real nice, we held up with statistically significant findings.

https://www.someweekendreading.blog/cybertruck-vs-pinto/

Well, I don't know. You see deer strikes all the time where I live (rural folks will know what I'm talking about).

You rarely see deerS strikes, where the deer get chopped into multiple deers. It happens, it's just rare, other than like, 18 wheeler hits.

I shared the story because I thought that was strange and alarming. The truck that looks like a guillotine blade seems to cut just how it looks like it would.

No, no, that's how you heil the Cybertaxi.

The Cybertruck can't see well enough to recognize hand signals, you'll get plowed for sure.

That's more than 1 brake check per hour at the speed they were testing the system at.

I did, too!

https://media1.tenor.com/m/zJvexdmTjA4AAAAC/im-doing-my-part-serious.gif

Thanks Iceman. I loved your work in Top Gun.

I think you touch on something important here. Some folks say the sample size is too small, on a strict statistical basis. Automotive safety works on different scales, often fast-paced decisions are made about auto safety and we don't wait around for "statistical significance" in an academically rigorous sense.

Ironically, the smallest production run of cars to receive a recall in the United States (that I could find) was... the Ford Pinto, because the accelerator pedal got stuck! That was its first year of production. All 26,000 were recalled 2 months after the model was released.

DOUBLE ironic... the smallest production run of pickup trucks to receive a recall in the United States (that I could find) was... the Tesla Cybertruck! ALSO because the accelerator pedal got stuck! All 4,000 were recalled a few months after deliveries started at scale, in the first full year of production.

Isn't that funny? History doesn't repeat itself, but it is basically a dirty limerick. And what an awful chapter of automotive history to repeat, our vehicles should be vastly safer in 2025 than they were in 1971.

Since I'm half-intelligent, I won't pretend to understand most what you're saying here.

I don't think the article linked is nonsense, though. It certainly isn't leftist anything, miss me with that.

But... importantly... There is a statistically correct way to complete the following sentence:

"The Tesla Cybertruck is ______ times more/less explosive than the Ford Pinto."

If you disagree with my answer to that question, what is your answer? I showed my math, I even invite the readers to re-run the equation. If you re-run it, what do you come up with? I bet your answer will be informative and helpful to the conversation about EV safety, two elements that are the "sugar," "spice," and "everything nice" about good reporting.

Hey, boss... If you say my name and don't knock on wood, I show up.

This place seems nice! I might post here in the future.

I do not hate EVs. Read my reviews of the Tesla Model 3, the new Dodge Charger EV, and the F-150 Lightning. If you don't like to read, the TL;DR is that I very much like each vehicle. Like many pickup truck people, I specifically do not like the Cybertruck, but that's because it's a lousy vehicle.

You should keep an open mind - just because you disagree with me, doesn't mean I have some unreasonable bias. I may have followed evidence to a different conclusion.

I do smile when Tesla fans ask me to announce my name. I already did! I'm Kay Leadfoot. You can learn more about me on my About page, which has definitely been there since Day 1. Unrelated to anything, please don't call me dude.