Michael Hasting's friend was just interviewed on TV:
"His friends and family that know him, everyone says he drives like a grandma, so that right there doesn't seem like something he'd be doing, there's no way that he'd be acting erratic like that and driving out of control"
Do people who drive like grandmas spend bread on a 200 hp Mercedes coupe?
According to this article [1], Hastings describes himself as a "a recovering drunk/addict/screw-up." In another True/Slant piece, he says, "I have smoked crack." He crashed a car in a drunk-driving accident at 19.
It's funny how geeks, who pride themselves on rationality, throw Occam's Razor out the window at the drop of a hat.
FWIW, 200 HP is not a lot and is, as far as I can tell, Mercedes' least powerful engine (201 HP 4-cylinder). In a 3,500 lb. car, it will not be especially fast.
(I used to have a 3,500 lb. coupe, a Pontiac GTO. Now that was fast. It had a 400 HP V8.)
Yes, it's a common frustration in the US that when you see a 911, Ferrari, Dodge Viper or whatever it's usually being driven slightly below the speed limit by some (presumably rich) old man.
And P.S. Occam's Razor is just a guide line. Many things happen every day that violate it. The US government has murdered people before and tried to cover it up, so it's not beyond the realm of believably or possibility.
People are speculating that the controls in his car may have been compromised. [e.g. [1]]
I'm not saying this is true; just that it is what people are speculating. Frankly I don't know whether or not it's possible to remotely take over that particular car's steering/acceleration mechanisms.
"His friends and family that know him, everyone says he drives like a grandma, so that right there doesn't seem like something he'd be doing, there's no way that he'd be acting erratic like that and driving out of control"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEIjna7672Q