Tesla Sued By Cops For False Advertising After Self-Driving Model Hit Their Cars
Image via Tesla
Tesla, despite ongoing lawsuits and numerous concerns, has decided to release its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta to customers who request it.
Now, less than a week after the wider release, yet another issue has cropped up involving the brand’s autonomous driving feature.
According to Insider, five policemen from Texas are suing Tesla, with claims that a car on Autopilot (part of the FSD feature) had crashed into their cars and injured them at a traffic stop. This incident took place on February 27, in a suburb of Houston, Texas.
The defendants alleged that when they pulled over to conduct a traffic stop on the right-hand lane of an expressway, a Model X crashed into their two cop cars, going at the speed of about 70 mph. This led to the cars slamming into the officers, as well as the driver they were performing the drug search on.
While nothing has been mentioned about the extent of the cops’ injuries, their lawsuit cites Tesla’s claim that its FSD system was better than that of a human at the wheel.
Speaking to KPRC, a local NBC station, the case attorney Tony Buzbee said that the brand’s advertising regarding the safety capabilities of its autonomous driving system “is misleading.” He alleged that Tesla’s FSD mode failed to recognize or detect “at least four vehicles, six people, and a German Shepard fully stopped in the lane of traffic.”
The policemen said they hoped “to hold Tesla accountable, and force Tesla to publicly acknowledge and immediately correct the known defects inherent in its Autopilot and collision avoidance system.”
Notably, a lawsuit was also filed against Pappas Restaurants, as the policemen said the food chain had served alcohol to the driver. Police reports did document that the driver was suspected to be driving under the influence when he was arrested after the crash.
Could the crash have been due to inebriation and not Autopilot? No one knows.
With the wider release of the FSD system just going into effect a short while ago, it probably won’t be surprising to see such complaints cropping up in the near future, as more drivers take to the street on Autopilot.
[via Insider, cover image via Tesla]
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