This is odd since most cars require stepping down on the brake pedal to start the car. Even my UTV (side-by-side) requires this. If my foot starts sinking down it will be obvious my brakes are failing. Cutting just enough into the last part of the brake line that is flexible hydraulic line to burst after a few miles would require quite some skill and a lot of practice. These lines have anywhere from 800 to 2000 pounds per square inch of pressure. Detailed high resolution pictures of the cut would be useful.

[Edit] I am not defending Elon or his orbiters. Crazy evil stuff happens all the time but I think we are due some pictures and videos of the evidence.

Many cars (especially ICE cars) may not have operational brake boost when you first get in to them — the vacuum that the power brakes rely on can easily be gone. So you step on the brakes without assist, then you start the engine, and then you have power brakes after a second or so.

I can easily imagine that stepping on a brake pedal with cut lines and no assist doesn’t feel that weird.

Also, plenty of people are not really tuned in to how their cars feel.

Removing the airbag impact sensor and then rewiring it to bypass the fault detection, without triggering the airbags, is also indicative of someone who has extensive experience in something no one should normally have experience in.

I've never needed to press the brake pedal until my current car. Just the clutch pedal. It's my first automatic.

It also doesn't require a hard press, just enough,

I think it'd be fairly straight forward to damage the rubber hoses near the calipers that failure was imminent but not immediate.

>Since then, Berulis has laid low. He filed a police report, included in the suit and viewed by WIRED, and had the car seen by a mechanic who, according to the report, found “that the driver-side front impact/airbag sensor had also been removed but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together, completing the circuit in a manner that prevented the vehicle from detecting or logging the missing component, while also preventing the vehicle from activating its safety protocols, alerting the driver, or engaging limp mode.” The police report also indicates that fingerprints had been found on Berulis’ car.

Now if only somebody involved in DOGE had all sorts of connections to people highly experienced with cars... maybe even by running a major carmaker himself?

> and had the car seen by a mechanic who, according to the report, found “that the driver-side front impact/airbag sensor had also been removed but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together, completing the circuit in a manner that prevented the vehicle from detecting or logging the missing component, while also preventing the vehicle from activating its safety protocols, alerting the driver, or engaging limp mode.

It’s quite obvious that this job was done by a professional if the allegations are true.

And I’m not personally about to doubt that our current government wouldn’t stoop to that level.

Are you just here to doubt the story?

No, I am skeptical without pictures and videos. I've also replaced a lot of brakes. A picture is worth a thousand words.

That link it throwing me:

  "Scan this QR code with your mobile device to verify you are human. reCAPTCHA protects your privacy and does not share your details with this website or app."

Is that a new recaptcha thing? I've never seen that before.