Tesla accused of sudden unintended acceleration
The facts are fairly simple, and on the face of the original headline extremely damaging. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating whether some Teslas suffer from “sudden unintended acceleration” (SUA) safety defect.
According to the report, the government is reviewing 127 cases, 110 of which resulted in accidents and 52 injuries.
More damning, perhaps, is that the models involved — the 201219 Model S, the 2016-19 Model X and the 2018-19 Model 3 — number more than 500,000 vehicles.
That is pretty much every car the Silicon Valley disrupter has ever sold.
Tesla is hardly the first automaker to be investigated for SUA.
Numerous manufacturers have been accused of producing “runaway”
cars over the years.
Even Toyota has been accused of producing cars with minds — actually, electronic control units — of their own.
And back in the 1980s, there were accusations that Audi cars suddenly accelerated, causing fatalities. Audi faded from the North American market, sales dropping from 74,000 in 1985 to barely more than 12,000 by 1991.
Toyota paid a then-record Us$1.2-billion fine in 2014 to settle its complaints. That said, SUA investigations are always suspect. First, most investigations have concluded that most cases of sudden surges of unexpected power are the result of simple pedal mismanagement — in a panic, the driver pushes on the throttle rather the intended brake pedal.
That makes conclusions suspect and messaging difficult.
No one has ever conclusively determined — beyond a little scaremongering about idle air controllers — that computers have taken control of a Prius.
Toyota’s solution to the problem, for instance, was to replace a bunch of floor mats, which had been impeding the movement of the throttle on numerous cars, and also made a dubiously needed modification to the pedal itself. The Audi debacle resulted in the automatic transmission interlock, now standard in all cars, preventing drivers from shifting out of park without first depressing the brake pedal.
What is unprecedented in this Tesla investigation is the motivation of those behind the investigation. NHTSA launched this investigation as a result of a petition from the public. What’s different in this case are the reports that the petitioner in question is a Tesla short seller who is betting against the company. If Elon Musk is yet again left off the hook, then we may have to come to grips with the fact Tesla will always be treated differently than traditional automakers. That might be worse than any accusation of unintended acceleration.