While Tesla continues to boast about its safety record and how it's one of the 'safest' car brands in the world, it’s also known to grab headlines with worrying reports of electrical malfunctions leaving people trapped inside and runaway vehicles crashing into other cars and then driving off.
Tesla maintains its safety record, and if anyone knows that more than the rest of us, it's Zhang Yazhou.
As reported by the Associated Press, Yazhou was involved in an incident with her Tesla Model 3 in 2021. The outlet explains how Yazhou was traveling as a passenger in the Model 3 while driving in central China's Henna province. According to her, she was with her father, mother, and niece, when a February 2021 accident apparently had her father shouting, "The brakes don’t work!"
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Although Yazhou and her niece were unharmed, medical records show that her parents were sent to the hospital. Traffic police claimed the fault was on Yazhou's father, but with her adamant that it was a malfunction, she took things further.
When Tesla refused to release the crash data, she went to protest outside a dealership in Zhengzhou with her damaged vehicle, then parked up at an auto show in Zhengzhou, and finally stormed a Shanghai auto show after mediation went nowhere.
Donning T-shirts that said 'Brakes fail' and heading to the Tesla booth at the Shanghai auto show, Yazhou admitted things 'escalated' before she was arrested.
Footage of Yazhou being escorted from the show went viral on Chinese social media, and in response to the incident, a Tesla executive said she had someone ‘behind her’ - speculating that a competitor or the Chinese government sent her.
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She sued Tesla for defamation but found herself on the sharp end of her own defamation case from the EV Goliath. Tesla accused Yazhou of deliberately trying to harm the brand and asked for
5 million yuan ($684,000) in damages.
AP writes how an emotional protest from Yazhou and pressure from regulators saw Tesla eventually release the crash data. Inside, it suggested that her father had been driving at 120 km per hour (75 mph) and that the brakes had “functioned to reduce the magnitude of the collision."
Despite Yazhou seemingly getting what she wanted, Tesla is accused of publishing her vehicle identification number, which she says led to her and her family being doxxed.
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Bringing forward a second case for invasion of privacy alongside her earlier defamation claim, Yazhou lost both in March 2022.
With Zhang unable to prove the brakes had failed, a Shanghai court ruled against her in May 2024 and ordered her to pay 170,000 RMB ($23,000) to cover the damages and legal costs to the company which is worth $1.1 trillion.
The case is currently in appeal, but with the AP reiterating that it's found examples of Tesla winning 11 cases against it, one settling out of court, and two in appeal (including Yazhou's), the odds are stacked against her.
Even though no cases have been brought forward by Tesla in the USA, CEO Elon Musk said "maybe it is time" it starts suing media outlets for negative coverage.