Regardless of whether it was driver error or algorithm error, Tesla said it has no “legal duty to design a failsafe car.”
According to Plaintiffs, the purported defect is that Tesla’s vehicles are allegedly prone to sudden, unintended acceleration. Plaintiffs allege that the sudden acceleration may be caused by defects in various vehicle systems or by driver negligence, but that, in any event, Tesla should have designed a failsafe system to prevent it. Tesla contends that each sudden acceleration incident alleged in the FAC (First Amended Complaint) was the result of driver error, denies that its cars are defective in any way, and disputes that there is a legal duty to design a failsafe car.
Tesla claims that such a feature—an algorithm that would eliminate full throttle acceleration into fixed objects—is something that “no manufacturer has ever done” and is not covered by warranty.
According to the lawsuit, there is something wrong with the design of the Automatic Emergency Braking system in which the Tesla computer will use the forward-looking camera and the radar sensor to determine the distance from objects in front of the vehicle.
“When a frontal collision is considered unavoidable, Automatic Emergency Braking is designed to automatically apply the brakes to reduce the severity of the impact. But Tesla has programmed the system to deactivate when it receives instructions from the accelerator pedal to drive full speed into a fixed object,” according to the suit.
Tesla has designed and manufactured a vehicle that is capable of accelerating from zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds—acceleration that was previously achievable only in a select number of exotic sports cars—and equipped the vehicle with the ability to sense objects in its path and brake automatically to prevent or minimize frontal impacts, but Tesla has programmed these systems to allow the Model S and Model X to engage full throttle acceleration into fixed objects, such as walls, fences, and beams, that are in the direct path and immediate proximity of the vehicle.
Toyota was the last car company to be accused of producing cars affected by SUA. In that case, it was caused by driver error, sticking accelerator pedals, and trapped floor mats; NASA was called in to interrogate Toyota’s control electronics but found no evidence of a problem.
A hearing on the Tesla dispute is set for May 1 in a Santa Ana, California, federal court.