Transportation

U.S. Government Is Reviewing Dozens Of Complaints About Tesla Vehicles Accelerating Unprompted


Topline: The National Transportation Highway Safety Administration is reviewing a petition of 127 consumer complaints claiming that an unintended acceleration problem in three Tesla models is responsible for 110 accidents and 52 injuries between 2012 and 2019.

  • The claims were made against 123 unique vehicles of the Tesla Model S between 2012 and 2019, the Tesla Model X between 2016 and 2019, and the Tesla Model 3 between 2018 and 2019.
  • Some 500,000 cars across the model ranges could be formally investigated if the agency decides to launch an official probe into the complaints.
  • It is not known who brought the complaints, but they include accidents that occured as people were pulling out of a parking space or trying to park in a garage. Others complained of sudden acceleration while in traffic.
  • One complaint from the driver said a 2015 Model S cited an incident when it began “accelerating forward towards the street and crashed into a parked car,” Reuters reported.
  • The agency said in a statement: “As is the agency’s standard practice in such matters, NHTSA will carefully review the petition and relevant data.” Tesla has not yet responded. Forbes has contacted Tesla for comment.

Key background: Tesla has come under fire for safety issues before. In October, the NHTSA opened an investigation into possible defects in the carmaker’s Model S and Model X battery packs that could cause non-crash fires. That petition was filed by consumer lawyer Edward Chen. The year before that the same federal agency sent a cease and desist letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk over “misleading statements,” after he claimed in an October 2018 blog post that the Model 3 has the “lowest probability of injury of all cars” and that occupants were less likely to get seriously hurt. The company’s Autopilot driver assistant system has also come under scrutiny after reports that drivers crashed, some fatally, while using the system. Last week, the NHTSA said it was investigating a December 29 crash involving a Tesla Model 3 that left one person dead when it crashed into a parked car in Indiana.



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