Tesla owner admits to lying about faulty brakes
Not so long ago we all heard and watched news from China with owners blaming their cars for causing accidents. Most claims focused on faulty brakes and some even went as far as accusing Tesla cars of accelerating randomly. The automaker’s reputation was on the line with numerous investigations ongoing and at some point the cars were banned from roads because of safety concerns.
One of many protesters blaming Tesla for accidents
Tesla wasn’t going to lay down and do nothing, they went after the accusers. After thorough investigations, not only by Tesla itself but other Chinese and international organizations, it was proven beyond any doubt that in every case it was the driver responsible for the accident - either failing to use brakes at all or confusing the brake pedal with accelerator. Reputation is everything in China and Tesla is forcing each and every driver who made such claims to apologize publicly.
Social media campaigns were highly publicized
The most publicized story was that of Mr Chen who back in August 2020 claimed his Tesla accelerated and hit a row of cars. He posted videos apparently showing his Model 3 randomly accelerating and failing to stop despite Mr Chen allegedly pressing the brake pedal.
Mr Chen went onto a prolonged campaign on social media, on radio and even on national TV accusing Tesla of manufacturing dangerous cars. But the story didn’t hold for too long, in October that year Mr Chen’s car was examined by Wenzhou Automobile Engineering Society - since nobody at the time was believing Tesla - and was found to have been working without any faults before and during the accident.
It was proven that Mr Chen simply confused the brake pedal with accelerator and then steered his Model 3 into a row of parked cars.
Yet another protester later forced to publicly apologize
Mr Chen as well as others were ordered by court to publicly apologize to Tesla and were issued with fines. Is this the end of false stories out there? Absolutely not, people will try anything for a bit of publicity, bad news always travels the fastest. Being publicly branded a liar in China comes with a lot of stigma, though, and that’s why Tesla is forcing its accusers to publicly apologize.
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Reader comments
- V
Sounds exactly like what happened in the 80's with Audi in the US with the "Unintended Acceleration" saga. Unfortunately there were no on-board computer logging then and Audi's reputation was tinted for many years to come.
- 16 May 2022
- TL%
