Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes don’t work! Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into an SUV and a sedan and crashing into a large concrete barrier.
Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the car’s brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than $23,000 in damages and publicly apologize to the $1.1 trillion company.
Zhang is not the only one to find herself in the crosshairs of Tesla, which is led by Elon Musk, among the richest men in the world and a self-described “ free speech absolutist.” Over the last four years, Tesla has sued at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures.
The brakes in these things have a lot of safety features and logging added to them.
If the brake was pressed, it’s easy to prove with the cars logs. It’s how most of the unintended acceleration stuff goes.
If you press the brake and the accelerator at the same time the brake will win as well.
She put seals on the doors to prevent Tesla from accessing the interior saying she didnt trust Tesla, and she refused 3rd party independent testing that Tesla offered to pay for.
Nothing about this specific incident helps her credibility at all.
Also, this story is old.