Ji Chang Son, a South Korean actor, filed on Friday a lawsuit against Tesla. He claimed that his Model X car accelerated spontaneously while he was parking the vehicle in his garage.
He said the Tesla Model X rammed through his living room, destroyed its wall and injured his son, who was a passenger, and him, Gizmodo reported. Ji Chang Son posted a photo of the damage to his house and car.
Class Action Lawsuit
The actor wants a class action lawsuit, according to a Tesla spokesman who added Ji Chang Son sought financial payment from Tesla and for the automaker to acknowledge the car accelerated on its own. Otherwise, he allegedly threatened to use his celebrity status in Korea to hurt the electric vehicle company founded by Elon Musk.
Tesla insisted, “The evidence clearly shows the vehicle was not at fault. Our policy is to stand by the evidence and not to give in to ultimatums.” In his Facebook post, Ji Chang Son belied Tesla accusation that he demanded money because he is famous. The actor pointed out that if the wall of the living room was concrete and not wood, he could have died from the car crash.
Autopilot Sensor in Software
Ji Chang Son cited similar cases on vehicle acceleration in his lawsuit. But Tesla replied that its vehicle has protection against pedal misapplication on multiple levels, while the vehicle has a software that uses an Autopilot sensor to make a distinction between misapplication of pedal from instances went the driver steps on the accelerator pedal on purpose. “In cases of unambiguous pedal misapplication, the vehicle cuts torque to mitigate the effects of the driver’s error,” Gizmodo quotes Tesla.
In August, a Tesla S travelling along the North Fifth Ring Road in Beijing logged the company’s first self-driving accident which the driver blamed on the vehicle’s Autopilot. In November, a Tesla S killed two in Indianapolis after the vehicle’s lithium ion battery exploded into a fireball.
South China Morning Post reported that Tesla would likely expand its Supercharger network in China where Elon Musk is eyeing a joint venture with a Chinese company to build the vehicle in China.