Tesla has sued its own customers and journalists in China for defamation – and won just about every time.

Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes don’t work! Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into an SUV and a sedan and crashing into a large concrete barrier.

Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the car’s brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than $23,000 in damages and publicly apologize to the $1.1 trillion company.

Zhang is not the only one to find herself in the crosshairs of Tesla, which is led by Elon Musk, among the richest men in the world and a self-described “ free speech absolutist.” Over the last four years, Tesla has sued at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures.

  • sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    422·
    2 months ago

    If a Chinese court would side with an American company against its own citizens it means one of two things:

    1. The girl’s father was really at fault.
    2. The judicial system in China is fucked up beyond repair.
    • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      It’s definitely the second. There’s a reason people joke about “Tiananman Square 1989”. Everything is censored to hell and back

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 months ago

      It’s not whether the girls father is at fault, read the article. She put a lot of effort into publicly defaming the company to try to get damages. While it seems like they should have had a better response, including sharing the evidence they had, there has to be a better way to get justice

      she draped her damaged car with a banner proclaiming “Tesla brake failure” in front of the Tesla dealership in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, some 200 km (124 miles) from her home. She sat on the Tesla’s roof and blared her protest through a bullhorn: “Tesla Model 3 brakes failed,” she said. “A family of four almost died.” The next month, she parked her damaged car outside an auto show in Zhengzhou

      • sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        I did read the article. It says Tesla would would not release the log (initially). How do you prove that your electric car wasn’t responding to brakes?

        A good old mechanical car, it’s as easy as taking it to mechanics but a high tech car? no so sure

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 months ago

          For a mechanical car, the only option is looking for failure points. I don’t know if there is relevant telemetry or who could access it.

          Teslas also have a mostly mechanical brake that any mechanic can check for failures. However that will be trumped by the sensor telemetry only Tesla has access to.

  • bean@lemmy.world
    25·
    2 months ago

    I hope this eats the shit out of their Chinese market. It dropped quite a bit in other areas but like 10-11% in China. I want to see everyone dump Tesla.

    I used to admire him when I was younger. Now, I would queue in line to kick him in the gonads.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
    42·
    2 months ago

    The brakes in these things have a lot of safety features and logging added to them.

    If the brake was pressed, it’s easy to prove with the cars logs. It’s how most of the unintended acceleration stuff goes.

    If you press the brake and the accelerator at the same time the brake will win as well.

    She put seals on the doors to prevent Tesla from accessing the interior saying she didnt trust Tesla, and she refused 3rd party independent testing that Tesla offered to pay for.

    Nothing about this specific incident helps her credibility at all.

    Also, this story is old.