Elon Musk and Tesla have recently been under much scrutiny as the company recently faced several lawsuits. However, news emerged from Munich, Germany, as the court ordered Tesla to pay a compensation fee of $101,000. It was after the women filed a lawsuit claiming the autopilot mode of Tesla was unreliable.
The woman purchased the car in December 2016 for $114,500 (112,640 Euros). The company delivered the car in March 2017 as the owner mainly paid around 5500 Euros ($5580) for the autopilot feature.
As the car’s owner, she began encountering problems dating back to November 2017. After considering all the evidence and facts, the court upheld the decision that she was indeed experiencing issues with the autopilot.
Claim and Judgment
Per the judgments, the autopilot was “unreliable in detecting obstacles and brakes would trigger unexpectedly without any reason .” The sudden braking caused a massive safety threat, particularly in city traffic, as it jeopardized the protection of car owners and others, according to the court.
On the contrary, the defenders (Tesla) lawyer argued that the Autopilot mode was not designed to operate inside the city traffic. However, the court completely denied the argument. The judgment stated that the “manual toggling” of the autopilot On and OFF would cause a distraction for the driver of different traffics.
However, Tesla did not list city traffic as a limitation, and there are several videos where the users operate it on the traffic road. Thus, it established a general perception for laypersons and potential buyers that the feature was available for city traffic, which the company didn’t dispute expressly.
The women also claimed that the car had several other problems. It included the door being unable to shut and open properly, which was also upheld by the court. In the final verdict, the court ordered the company to pay the women a compensation of around $101,000 (99,420 Euros) with an interest of 5%. It obliged Tesla to pay 80% of the legal fees as the women would cover the other 20%.
The Autopilot feature
The judgment sets a sore precedent for Tesla as the car’s Autopilot feature is under strict scrutiny. Although the autopilot feature lets the user automatically drive and brake, it doesn’t go beyond it. The company’s website mentions that the autopilot does not make the vehicles wholly autonomous and needs “active driver supervision.
