It's curious. Tesla has won previous cases by convincing juries that they'd provided enough disclaimers. They almost took this one to trial too, but agreed to settle at the last minute.
What changed their minds? Is there something in this case about the cars that they didn't want made public? Were they worried about the award giving other accident victims and their families ideas? In the settlement, Tesla kept the amount of the award a secret. Did they think that settling would get the case out of the news quicker, thus reducing the damage to their image? Tesla does seem to have a worsening image problem. As they say, the plural of anecdote isn't data, but IME - justified or not - the top of mind response to "Tesla" among the non-EV-fans I talk to is usually either "battery fires" or "autopilot accidents." You can blame the news media for that if you want, but last I heard, Tesla doesn't even have a PR department to manage their image. I guess Musk doesn't think he needs one. (He also doesn't think Teslas need driver assistance radar because human drivers don't have radar, but I digress.) There are conflicting reports on Tesla's accident rate. You might ask Hertz. They had more accidents involving Teslas than their other cars. I'm not an expert, but IMO there are at least 4 safety problems in play. 1. Software state: What other auto manufacturer would allow its customers to beta-test its driving assistance features? 2. Controls: Nonstandard. Newbie-confusing. Too much on a touchscreen, so you take your eyes off the road for too long. 3. Power: Too much. Stupid power amplifies stupid drivers' stupidity. 4. Drivers: Seems like "Tesla driver" is the new "BMW driver." These aren't likely to change, because Tesla is mainly in the business of building cars not to please real world drivers, but to Elon Musk's taste. So I think that the accidents and the lawsuits will keep happening. It'll be interesting to see whether this will be Tesla's new legal strategy, and what will happen with their image. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Then there was the lovable fully-armored Renfair performer who insisted on showing everyone his artistic photography, just so he could hear them say "Good prints, sweet knight." -- Anonymous = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
