Tesla debunks ‘sudden unintended acceleration’ allegations

Tesla has decried a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US alleging sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) in its vehicles as “completely false” and submitted by a Tesla stock short seller.

It’s been reported in some overseas media the NHTSA is reviewing a petition claiming all Tesla models are prone to SUA and considered a safety defect – refuted by Tesla.

The petition, which covers about 500,000 Teslas produced from 2013 to 2019, included 127 complaints that were submitted either by owners or others filing on their behalf, Teslarati reports.

In a blog post, ‘The Tesla Team’ says the allegations are false as its cars only accelerate if told by the driver to do so, and slow or stop when the driver applies the brake.

“We investigate every single incident where the driver alleges to us that their vehicle accelerated contrary to their input, and in every case where we had the vehicle’s data, we confirmed that the car operated as designed.”

Tesla says accidents caused by a mistaken press of the accelerator pedal have been alleged for nearly every make/model of vehicle on the road.

But the accelerator pedals in Model S, X and 3 vehicles have two independent position sensors, and if there is any error, the system defaults to cut off motor torque, Tesla says.

“Likewise, applying the brake pedal simultaneously with the accelerator pedal will override the accelerator pedal input and cut off motor torque, and regardless of the torque, sustained braking will stop the car.”

Tesla also uses the Autopilot sensor suite to help distinguish potential pedal misapplications and cut torque to mitigate or prevent accidents “when we’re confident the driver’s input was unintentional”.

“Each system is independent and records data, so we can examine exactly what happened.”

Tesla says it is transparent with the NHTSA, and routinely reviews customer complaints of unintended acceleration with them.

“Over the past several years, we discussed with NHTSA the majority of the complaints alleged in the petition. In every case we reviewed with them, the data proved the vehicle functioned properly.”