A Munich court has ordered Tesla to reimburse a customer for most of the EUR 112,000 she paid for a Model X SUV because of problems with the Autopilot function, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.
A technical report showed the vehicle did not reliably
recognise obstacles like the narrowing of a construction site and would at
times activate the brakes unnecessarily.
This could cause a "massive hazard" in city
centres and lead to collisions, the court ruled.
Tesla lawyers argued Autopilot was not designed for city
traffic, according to Der Spiegel, to which the court said it was not feasible
for drivers to switch the feature on and off manually in different settings as
it would distract from driving.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment and declined
to comment to Der Spiegel. The court was not immediately available for comment.
US safety regulators are investigating Tesla's Autopilot
function after reports of 16 crashes, including seven injury incidents and one
death, involving Tesla vehicles in Autopilot that had struck stationary
first-responder and road maintenance vehicles.
Tesla says Autopilot allows vehicles to brake and steer
automatically within their lanes but does not make them capable of driving
themselves.
Musk said in March that Tesla is likely to launch a test
version of its new "Full Self-Driving" software in Europe later this
year, depending on regulatory approval.
"It's quite difficult to do full self-driving in
Europe," he told workers at the Berlin factory at the time, saying much
work needs to be done to handle tricky driving situations in Europe where roads
vary a lot by country. © Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment