Well, I would say the test results were conclusive, if nothing else.

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[–] 193 points 4 months ago (29 children)

According to Fox 4, the driver is being held in Grapevine Jail as of Tuesday afternoon, with violations including:

Having no valid boat registration.

That is both hilarious and stupid. You would have to imagine the definition of a boat would be something that floats, which the Cybertruck clearly isn't in this photo. It's also less water than the truck is rated in the owner's manual to be able to handle.

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  • [–] [S] 97 points 4 months ago (22 children)

    This got me thinking, you're right, how can it be a boat if it can't float?

    Turns out, everything is bigger in Texas, including the legal definition of what constitutes a boat.

    Is it motorized, above 14 feet in length, and afloat, docked, or stored on Texas waters? Then it's a boat that needs to be registered, fam.

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  • [–] 27 points 4 months ago (20 children)

    I've read that, and I don't think any reasonable person would consider a vehicle being driven on a lake bed to be a vessel.

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  • [–] 57 points 4 months ago (13 children)

    No, but its owner was storing it in a lake, it’s over 14’ long, and has a (non-functional) motor.

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  • [–] 29 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Have an accident where you drive off a bridge in Texas, get charged with not having a boat registration.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I wonder if they charged the guy who crashed his Veyron in Galveston Bay? I mean with something other than insurance fraud.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I was trying to figure out why that name sounded familiar. I hadn't heard of the story you referenced. I'm also pretty sure I've never been near anywhere with that name, though I think I might have encountered a road with a similar one.

    Eventually, I remembered a book my then 5yo gave me after it was withdrawn from the school library and offered as a "keep forever" book.

    The book did tell an interesting story partially based on real life first person accounts of a famous storm / flood, but overall it was fictional. There were some details I thought were inappropriate. I don't know if those details (casual racism and acceptance of same, both by otherwise redeemable characters and by the victims of it; fairly graphic representation of bodily harm) match the reality of the time but, to put it bluntly, I agree with whomever made the decision to withdraw the book from a children's library.

    (I'm not sure what age group has access to the library. I do think it's important for schools to allow access to uncomfortable facts, especially of history ... But again, my kid was five at the time, so presumably other similarly aged kids also had access and I don't think that they needed to hear these stories at that age.

    My kid didn't read, nor appear to want to read, the book, but given that they get freaked out by my surgery scars I don't think that they would have benefited from doing so.)

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I don't know if those details (casual racism and acceptance of same, both by otherwise redeemable characters and by the victims of it; fairly graphic representation of bodily harm) match the reality of the time

    1900 Texas, yeah, it matches the reality of the time. We're talking about a state that 40 years before that had voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Union and ousted their governor when he refused to join the Confederacy. We're talking full on Jim Crow, segregation as law, redlining, employment gating, etc etc - it was very bad.

    But yeah I mean I probably wouldn't say a 5yo should be engaging with that content, but I could see a 10 year old maybe? It feels 6th grade level is about right for that?

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    This would mean every vehicle used to launch a boat would be considered a boat in it's own right. As well as the trailer.

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  • [–] 32 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to store my truck or trailer in the lake?

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Neither did this guy, at least not intentionally.

    It seems like a vehicle being driven in a body of water is considered a vessel, and that's just absurd.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    It's also not submerged, not entirely.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    Submarines dont have to be underwater to still be submersibles.

    Sailors are big fans of the boat floating when they want to get on and off the thing. The alternatives are...not so great.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Even submersibles float, just underwater.

    The whole thing is absurd.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    Submersibles always float, even when above the water line. They retain their state as submarines regardless of where and whence they float.

    Even in dry dock, where they "float" in the air due to steel beams, they are still submarines.

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  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Well, I think it's not wrong to apply the same rules to any kind of vessel you take into the water. Therefore, it's good to simply assume that every vessel in the water is some kind of boat so people don't say 'well akshually this is not a boat' and do bullshit like this cybertruck driver.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    Well, THAT'S comedy gold for me! laughs out loud

    And, well, some laws are kinda stupid. After hearing a few of other examples it doesn't surprise me that you could end up in jail because of this kind of a law.

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