Car maker Tesla is being sued by a driver who says that his Model X SUV accelerated into the wall of his home spontaneously as he was parking it, causing significant damage to the property and injuring both the driver and passenger.
According to Before It’s News, the suit was filed yesterday at the US District Court in California and alleges that Ji Chang Son was slowly parking his Model X in his garage when the car unexpectedly (and according to Son, for no reason) accelerated “at full power” into the wall and through into his lounge. The resulting damage included the destruction of support beams in the wall and a steel sewer pipe, as well as injury to both occupants of the car, the suit claims.
While Son is seeking damages for a range of things (product liability, negligence and breaches of warranty), the suit also seeks class action status based on records of seven other similar complaints registered in a database compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), according to VentureBeat. Penalties for class action lawsuits tend to result in larger settlements in the US, though Son is seeking unspecified damages.
It’s a rocky end to the year for Tesla, which has had a year of ups and downs, which included the first death of a driver while using autopilot. In that instance, it was caused by the system failing to distinguish between the side of a trailer against a bright white sky. Tesla says that drivers need to stay alert even when autopilot is engaged. Another crash this year claimed failure of the autopilot system that led to a Tesla wiping out an entire section of fencing, but in all instances, Tesla says it has reviewed its logs and found driver error to be the root cause – with most coming down to failing to pay attention or use common sense.
Despite the allegedly unexplained crashes and failures of autopilot, autonomous vehicles are very much on the roadmap for the near-future. We’ve contacted Tesla for a statement regarding this new lawsuit and will update if the company responds.
Related: Tesla driver furious after ‘Autopilot’ crash, blames misleading staff
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Does news like this put you off a Tesla, or is it all part of building the future? Let us know in the comments below!
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
