A pickup truck driver who seemingly hates Tesla got caught and charged for harassing a Model 3 owner thanks to TeslaCam, Tesla’s onboard dashcam feature utilizing Autopilot camera.

A Tesla Model 3 driver going by Arti on Youtube wrote about a situation he ran into last week in British Columbia:

“The gentleman in this white truck decided to tailgate, pull into the shoulder to intimidate, give me the finger, call me a “Tesla fag”, and run a red without stopping.”

Some of those behaviors were caught by Tesla’s dashcam feature, which uses both a front-facing and 2 side-facing cameras to record when needed.

Here’s the video he shared:

The owner of the Model 3 said that he submitted the footage to the RCMP, the federal police in Canada, and the pickup truck driver was charged:

“Submitted the video to the local police (RCMP) and they just advised me they are charging him for tailgating, crossing a solid line and running a red. $800 lesson for this gem of a driver.”

It’s not the first time that aggressive behaviors toward Tesla owners by pickup truck owners have been reported.

Last year, a Tesla Supercharger station was taken over by anti-Tesla pickup truck drivers and it happened again a few weeks later.

Several Tesla owners have also reported being targeted by pickup trucks “roll coaling” them.

Electrek’s Take

At the end there, it looks like the pickup driver was so concerned about giving the Tesla owner the finger, and apparently call him a ‘Tesla fag’, that he ran a red light.

That’s some reckless behavior.

And if he indeed called him a ‘Tesla fag’ and it’s about Tesla hate and not your average road-raging, I really can’t wrap my head around it.

Even if you don’t want to drive an electric car, there’s no reason to hate on them.

I am speculating here, but it might have to do with subsidies for electric cars, which are significant in British Columbia and now in the whole of Canada.

It’s something that you often hear from Tesla detractors: “Tesla is all about getting government subsidies.” It generates some hate from some people who think it’s unfair.

Of course, those people don’t understand that the cost of gasoline vehicles is extremely subsidized by not properly accounting by the massive impact they have on health and the environment.

If we were to properly account for that, this guy’s pickup truck would be much more expensive so in a sense, it is currently heavily subsidies – arguably a lot more than even a Tesla Model 3 in British Columbia.

Again, I’m speculating here. The guy might just hate Tesla because it’s electric too. Not sure which one is dumber.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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