The rights protection incident involving Tesla owners at the Shanghai Auto Show on April 19 has attracted widespread attention online.
On the evening of April 22, Tesla publicly released the key 5.32-second data and text description of the car owner's minute before the accident; at the same time, they sent Ms. Zhang the original vehicle data from half an hour before the incident via email. On April 23, the husband of a female car owner defending her rights claimed Tesla infringed on her personal privacy rights and demanded the data be withdrawn.
The incident is still escalating and is yet to be continued.
Tesla brake failure and sudden acceleration are not problems only Chinese car owners encounter; there are precedents worldwide.
In 2019, 232 Tesla owners in the United States filed a petition with the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), demanding a recall of 662,000 vehicles produced since 2013, covering the Model S, X, 3, and Ymodels.
After more than a year of investigation, NHTSA announced its conclusion on January 9 this year:
NHTSA's conclusion, translated as such: after reviewing all available data, the ODI (Office of Defect Investigation) found no evidence sufficient to support a defect investigation into SUA (Sudden Unexpected Acceleration) in the target vehicle. With data from each incident verifiable by ODI, evidence shows that petitioners' complaints citing SUA causing crashes were caused by pedaling the wrong pedal. There is no evidence that any of the above accidents were caused by failures in the accelerator pedal assembly, motor control system, or braking system. There is no evidence that design issues with the accelerator pedal increase the likelihood of misstepping.
But the matter didn't end there; NHTSA's findings sparked heated discussion and skepticism among automotive electronics engineers worldwide. One of them, Dr. Ronald A. Belt, conducted in-depth research and concluded that although the NHTSA investigation appeared to be caused by the driver pressing the wrong pedal, the sudden acceleration was due to design flaws in Tesla's braking system and its interaction mechanism with the regenerative system.
Dr. Ronald A. Belt is a highly experienced automotive electronics engineer who has joined a research team initiated by the US NHTSA and NASA to address sudden acceleration issues in Toyota vehicles. If you're interested, you can click here. This Chinese translation of the analysis contains a large number of images and tables, very technically advanced.
Technical issues are left to the engineers; we outsiders won't get involved.
Returning to the Shanghai car owners' rights protection incident, let's discuss some issues that interest Green Ribbon:
1. The issue of evidence in automotive product liability disputes
When it comes to determining the cause of an accident, the vehicle's core data plays a crucial role.
Smart electric vehicles have a high technical threshold, and ordinary consumers find it difficult to prove they made no operational errors. As the party controlling vehicle data, it is only natural for Tesla to provide data and information.
To go further ahead, if the case reaches the litigation stage and the owner chooses to defend their rights through litigation, they have two options: sue Tesla for breach of contract or infringement. The burden of proof for the two types of lawsuits is different.
Contract selection lawsuits follow the standard civil litigation rules for presenting evidence, meaning the claimant must provide proof, and the plaintiff bears the burden of proof;
If a tort lawsuit is chosen, China implements the principle of reversed burden of proof. As the plaintiff's owner, as long as it can be proven that the infringement was caused by the vehicle, Tesla must prove the vehicle:
Not yet put into circulation;
When put into circulation, the defect causing damage does not yet exist; Or
The scientific and technological level at the time of circulation has not yet revealed any defects
If Tesla cannot provide evidence proving its car has no product quality issues, Tesla will bear the consequences of losing the lawsuit and compensate consumers, which in severe cases may lead to widespread vehicle recalls.
2. The battle over data
Whether Tesla had quality issues in this accident almost entirely depended on driving data.
The basic logic should be:
Step one: Extract the data;
Step two: Determine whether the data is authentic, complete, and trustworthy;
The third step is to analyze the data and define the cause and responsibility for the accident.
Here comes the question:
- Whose data?
Initially, the owner requested Tesla to provide driving data from half an hour before the incident, but Tesla refused, citing that the data was a "black box" and could not be disclosed. Later, under pressure from the government and public opinion, Tesla chose to release it publicly on April 22.
Who actually owns the electric vehicle data has always been controversial, and there is no explicit legal provision.
Some scholars believe that electric vehicle driving data in China is a personal right of users, and automakers need to obtain owners' approval when collecting and using user data. After an accident, car companies should disclose data according to owners' requests, and the method of data release should be decided by the owners.
However, Ihave a different view. The data involved in electric vehicles is very complex, including external environmental data (which may involve national security), vehicle data (which may involve automakers' intellectual property), and user driving habits and privacy data (which may involve personal privacy). These cannot be generalized and should be treated differently.
To determine the cause of the accident, Tesla, as the controller of driving data, should provide driving data. But in what way should it be provided? And to what extent should it be provided?
Currently, there is no clear legal regulation in China regarding the process for automakers to disclose data after an electric vehicle accident.
- Is the data provided by Tesla trustworthy?
Under pressure from the government and public opinion, Tesla released data online on the evening of April 22: