#1287 - Rich Benoit

Joe Rogan (0:00)

I believe in wireless. He needs to see it.

Boom, and we're live. What's up, Rich? How are you, man? Thanks for doing this, I really appreciate it.

Rich Benoit (0:08)

Dude, thank you for having me on this show, man.

Joe Rogan (0:09)

Well, I read about you, fellow Boston native, and I read about your Tesla journey, and I was like, this is a fuckin interesting story. This guy buys a broken Tesla, and then you couldn't get parts for it anywhere.

So what had happened to the car? It had been in an accident?

Rich Benoit (0:26)

No, so I met the previous owner, and he actually, I think it was during Hurricane Sandy.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Oh.

Rich Benoit (0:32)

He thought that, he goes, wait a minute, that water level seems low enough for me to drive through it, and he just started driving through the water. I think it got up to like the, almost like the B pillar.

Joe Rogan (0:41)

Oh no.

Rich Benoit (0:42)

Up to like where his neck is, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:43)

Jesus Christ.

Rich Benoit (0:44)

Yeah, I know, right?

So he thought he could fight the water, he lost, obviously, and it was just under water. And I'm like, you know what, I gotta try this thing.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

And so what would Tesla do in that situation? If he wanted to bring it back to them, they would have to rebuild the entire car?

Rich Benoit (0:57)

They wouldn't even do it because at that point, once anything liquid, any kind of water intrusion happens at an EV, they just write the whole car off. Insurance companies are just like, we're not gonna deal with this.

Joe Rogan (1:07)

Too risky.

Rich Benoit (1:07)

Too risky, not worth it.

Joe Rogan (1:09)

Were you aware of the fisker dilemma at Hurricane Sandy when they had the fiskers that were parked at the, it was at some sort of a dock where they brought them out of the ship. They all exploded.

Rich Benoit (1:22)

Yeah, they all burned.

Joe Rogan (1:23)

The water level rose, and the water got into them, and they just went off like fucking fireworks.

Rich Benoit (1:27)

And they lost a whole bunch of them.

Joe Rogan (1:29)

Look, here's a video of it.

You can watch the video of them fucking blowing up. So as the water level rose and you'd see the water breaching, well the water gets to the cars, and when it gets to the cars, they just start going off like fucking fireworks.

Rich Benoit (1:42)

Oh yeah, oh yeah, I know that feeling. Oh yeah, oh wow.

Joe Rogan (1:45)

Look at that, boom, boom, boom.

Rich Benoit (1:49)

Look at that shit, dude. Oh, it's like a supernova.

Joe Rogan (1:52)

I mean, those are big ass fucking batteries just blowing the fuck, that's insane. That turns night into day.

Rich Benoit (1:59)

That's amazing. How many, they lost like 40 cars or something like that?

Joe Rogan (2:02)

They lost a fuckload. And the company essentially went, they went radio silent for like a year.

Rich Benoit (2:07)

That's a big L to take.

Joe Rogan (2:08)

Yeah, they took a hit. Once people realized their car could just explode.

Rich Benoit (2:12)

Yeah, that's not good.

Joe Rogan (2:15)

What happened?

Jamie (2:15)

This video, I didn't look at the name of the video. It popped up when I typed in the Fisker explosion, but this was the explosion of the Con Ed plant.

Joe Rogan (2:22)

Oh, that's a big difference.

Rich Benoit (2:23)

Yeah, that was huge.

Joe Rogan (2:27)

I was like, what the fuck is in those cars? But there is a video of the actual Fisker's exploding, isn't there?

Jamie (2:32)

I think there's definitely pictures.

Rich Benoit (2:33)

I have a feeling the second video won't be as exciting now.

Joe Rogan (2:36)

Yeah, let's leave it off. Fuck it.

More misinformation.

Rich Benoit (2:40)

Just set us back an hour.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

Yeah, so that's the cars. That's what was left of them. And they all fucking blew up.

It's a beautiful car, though. Fisker did a great job of making a car that looks really good.

Rich Benoit (2:51)

Right, but you know what's funny? I think the back end is kind of ugly.

Joe Rogan (2:54)

Do you?

Rich Benoit (2:54)

I think the front looks like a fish.

The back's kind of ugly. And then actually, have you ever driven one?

Joe Rogan (2:58)

No.

Rich Benoit (2:58)

You ever been in one?

Joe Rogan (2:59)

No.

Rich Benoit (2:59)

When you drive one, you'll be like, ah, I get why this didn't work out.