Elon Musk’s EV manufacturing company is facing a lawsuit after a woman’s vehicle almost drove her off a bridge ‘without warning’.
The woman from Houston, Texas, is seeking $1 million in damages from Tesla as she claims her Cybertruck crashed into a concrete barrier while in self-driving mode.
Justine Saint Amour’s one year old child was in the car at the time of the crash, with her lawyer claiming that she did not have much time to act after the Cybertruck failed to follow the road at an overpass exit.
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Attorney Bob Hilliard explained: “And suddenly, like that, you know, you realize you know this car is going to kill me.”
He continued: “At the last second she looked at the screen and realized the Tesla truck was not going to go right and it wasn’t going to go left, it was going to go straight over the overpass.”
Saint Amour tried to avoid collision by deactivating the self-driving mode and taking over the controls but it was too late to stop the crash.
Hilliard went on to say: “Even a very alert driver who allows the truck to drive itself, like it says it can, you know can’t go from passenger to emergency-driver reaction you know in a blink of an eye, and that’s what Tesla expects.”
He added: “It is a driver-assist Tesla, basically cruise control on steroids. Um but the marketing tells the driver that it is fully self driving.”
While Saint Amour was hurt in the crash, her infant was unharmed.
In other Tesla news, safety experts have urged for cars to get back to ‘basics’ after a warning was issued over potentially ‘deadly’ features.
This comes as car safety experts raise the alarm over certain high-tech features which could be putting you at risk on the road.
One feature that is sparking particular concern are touchscreen dashboards, which some fear could be creating a distraction for drivers.
One particularly concerning addition to some cars that is facing an industry-wide ban are pop-out handles, which is a key feature in Tesla models.
It was revealed by local reports that Chinese regulators are considering putting a ban in place against pop-out door handles.
This is due to concerns about safety issues and the failure rate of the function, but it would be a huge blow to Tesla as it is one of the EV manufacturing firm’s key features.
UNILAD Tech has contacted Tesla for comment.