Tesla To Reimburse Model X Owner 99,416 Euros For Autopilot Malfunction

A court in Munich, Germany has ordered Tesla to reimburse a buyer of the Model X for problems with the vehicle’s Autopilot feature. The owner who brought the case to court had bought the car in December 2016 (for 112,640 Euros) and paid an extra 5,500 Euros for the Autopilot feature. The car was delivered in March 2017.

The Model X owner complained that the car’s Autopilot started malfunctioning in November that year. It unreliably identified obstacles and engaged the brakes for no reason. About this time last year, another Tesla owner had shared on social media that his Tesla car thought that the yellow moon was a yellow traffic light, and slowed down.

Tesla tried to argue in the Munich case that the Autopilot function is not intended for city traffic use. This is the first time that we have heard of such claim and the official website doesn’t say anything to that effect either. It does say a bunch of other stuff though:

“Many factors can impact the performance of Autopilot, causing the system to be unable to function as intended. These include, but are not limited to: poor visibility (due to heavy rain, snow, fog, etc.), bright light (due to oncoming headlights, direct sunlight, etc.), mud, ice, snow, interference or obstruction by objects mounted onto the vehicle (such as a bike rack), obstruction caused by applying excessive paint or adhesive products (such as wraps, stickers, rubber coating, etc.) onto the vehicle; narrow, high curvature or winding roads, a damaged or misaligned bumper and extremely hot or cold temperatures.” 

…that’s a lot of conditions in which the Autopilot “might not function as intended”.

Unpredictable braking, of course, poses a “massive danger” and the German court ruled it so. The judgement also said that expecting the owner to toggle the Autopilot on and off to match different traffic conditions is distracting for the driver. Besides that, the court also ruled in favour of the owner in complaints unrelated to the Autopilot function, such as the doors that also didn’t function properly

Tesla is required to pay the owner 99,420 Euros plus 5% interest, and 80% of her legal fees. The outcome of this case might just trigger a slew of other lawsuits by disgruntled owners, or otherwise, hoping for a big, fat payout.