Tesla’s Autopilot keeps making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The electric car maker has settled a class-action lawsuit with buyers of its Model S and Model X vehicles who alleged that the assisted-driving system was “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous.”
The 2017 lawsuit in San Jose federal court named six Tesla Model S and Model X owners from Colorado, Florida, New Jersey and California who alleged the company had engaged in fraud by concealment, and had violated various state consumer protection and unfair competition laws.
The Tesla owners said they had paid an extra $5,000 to have their cars equipped with the Autopilot software, which promised to provide additional safety features, but in fact was “completely inoperable,” according to the complaint.
The case, settled late Thursday, was closely watched in the automotive and legal communities, as it was the only known court challenge Tesla faced with regard to its assisted-driving technology.
The settlement came the same day a police report obtained by the Associated Press about a Tesla crash in Utah earlier this month showed that the vehicle — which was in Autopilot mode at the time of the crash — actually accelerated in the seconds before it smashed into a stopped fire truck.
The report suggested that the Tesla was traveling behind another vehicle at 55 mph, but accelerated automatically to its preset speed of 60 mph when the leading car switched lanes.
The vehicle’s 29-year-old driver had told police she was on her phone prior to the crash — which resulted in her breaking a foot — and thought the Tesla’s automatic emergency braking system would stop before the car hit anything.
She said she had owned the car for two years and used the semi-autonomous Autopilot feature on all sorts of roadways, including on the Utah highway where she crashed, according to the report.
The police said car data showed the driver did not touch the steering wheel for 80 seconds before the crash, and the driver said the car did not provide any audio or visual warnings prior to impact.
Tesla has said it repeatedly warns drivers to stay alert, keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of their vehicle at all times while using the Autopilot system.
The company has come under increased scrutiny over Autopilot in recent months after two Tesla drivers died in crashes in which Autopilot was engaged. The most recent fatal crash, in March, is being investigated by safety regulators.
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On Wednesday, two US consumer advocacy groups also urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate what they called Tesla’s “deceptive and misleading” use of the name Autopilot for its assisted-driving technology.