A Tesla driver in a Model X 100D learned the hard way that 0.4 miles, or literally just down a hill in an already-hilly area, can feel like an impossible distance when your battery reads zero, even if a tow truck is already on the way.

In a video posted to the Electric Cars Facebook page with 249,000 views, the driver describes the fully preventable dilemma from inside his dead vehicle.

“Check it out. Battery power too low. Charge battery. 0 miles left,” said the unseen driver. “The charging station is 0.4 miles away. Right there.”

He’s pointing his phone down the way to a charging station, in what looks like an extremely hilly area.

Then, he is in the car, which is hooked up to a tow truck.

“We’re driving down the road, I’m in the tow truck right now. In my car, I mean. I’m in my car, and there’s a tow truck. That’s where we need to go,” he explains.

The video’s caption reads: “So close, yet so far! Tow truck ride of shame! Is this worse than running out of Gas?? Pretty sure riding in the car while it’s being towed isn’t legal…right? He offered it, so I did it!”

The Peanut Gallery Chimes In

A video like this necessitates an immediate visit to the comments.

“CARS don’t run out of Gas OR Electricity. Drivers do,” said one person. Another person joked, “Better go put some electricity in a container and walk back to your car to fill it up. Oh wait… you can’t.”

One person wondered how he could be towed while inside the Tesla. “I’m surprised the tow truck driver let you stay in the car,” they wrote. “That’s illegal where I live and a huge liability risk as well.”

“Tesla will literally tell you that you’re not going to make it,” noted another person, making a critical point. “It will TELL you how to make it there or somewhere else to stop.”

This Is a Warning

The 2017–2019 Tesla Model X 100D gets from 0-60 mph in 4.7-4.8 seconds. It’s an all-wheel-drive electric SUV with a 100 kWh battery, 525 horsepower, and a top speed of 155 mph. It’s a nice little whiparound, depending on how you feel about Tesla these days.

Per a Tesla Motors Club forum post on the topic, the battery icon will turn yellow at 20%, and red below that (reportedly around 10%). If you’re driving and the predicted battery level at arrival drops below 7%, the car issues warnings on both the center console and instrument cluster, reading “stay below [65/60/55] mph to reach destination,” with the suggested speed dropping as the situation worsens.

Tesla’s Trip Planner feature, as described in the owner’s manual, automatically routes drivers through Supercharger stops when charging is needed to reach a destination. It will compute literally everything a person needs to never run out of electricity. Drivers get their estimated energy consumption based on their driving style, wind speed, elevation changes (like the hills he’s been driving), road conditions, real-time traffic, and weather.

It even provides recommended charging times at each stop and an estimate of how much juice you have left on arrival. If it can’t find a Supercharger along the way, for whatever reason, it will let you know.

So, What Happened Here?

It seems that either the driver was trying to make content, something is wrong with the Tesla’s electronics, or he was being violently irresponsible, because there is almost no way to simply “run out of juice.”

On top of that, allowing the car to get all the way down to 0%—per the Tesla manual—could damage various components. And, discharge-related expenses aren’t covered in the warranty.

Why is that? Short of an unusual emergency, there is no feasible, responsible way to run out of juice if one is abiding by the manual.

MotorBiscuit reached out to the Electric Cars Facebook page by comment and message, and to Tesla via email.