The Great Reversal Is Coming?
The owner of the Wenzhou Tesla out of control incident publicly apologized on Weibo on the evening of the 9th, admitting to mistakenly using the throttle as a brake. Subsequently, the topic #Wenzhou Tesla out of control owner public apology # also appeared on the hot search.
In August 2020, a Tesla Model 3 owner in Wenzhou had a collision with multiple cars after driving his vehicle into a parking lot. After the accident, the owner of the car said on social platforms such as Douyin and Weibo that the accident occurred because the vehicle suddenly accelerated and he stepped on the brakes without responding. After appraisal, the facts did not match the description of the owner, and the owner was sentenced to apologize and compensate 50,000 yuan. After that, the owner appealed, and the second instance was rejected.
Image source: Provided by the owner
Tesla owner apologizes:
Admit to making the mistake of using the throttle as a brake
The party wrote in the apology that the accident was caused by his panic mistakenly using the throttle as a brake, on the day of the accident he "wanted to step on the brake, the result was wrong, the throttle was used as the brake", afterwards he felt "unwilling", from the middle of August of that year, in the Douyin, Weibo, radio, TV interviews, continued to fabricate "Tesla automatic acceleration brake failure", "cherish life away from Tesla" and other content, to insult and slander Tesla company and Tesla motors.
The party also said that Tesla staff had contacted him several times, hoping that he could explain the real situation of the accident to the public, but he ignored it. After the first and second instance trials, the judgment found that the party constituted an infringement of Tesla's reputation, and should apologize to Tesla and compensate for economic losses.
The owner revealed in the apology letter that when he carried out the above behavior, he was contacted by a Shanghai "owner with a surname" to introduce him to a certain platform, and the platform arranged for him to have a special lawyer and contracted all the fees. Moreover, Ms. Henan Che and Mr. Han, the owner of the Tianjin car, also contacted him; during the period, Ms. Zhang invited him to write a joint letter class action lawsuit together, but he refused.
Finally, the party said that he had realized his mistake and apologized to Tesla and netizens, saying that he "should not be blinded by his own selfishness and the deception of others."
The following is a screenshot of his apology letter:
He once said that he would never commit it
"Wrong brake, wrong accelerator" error
On the evening of August 12, 2020, a Tesla Model 3 in Wenzhou suddenly lost control when entering the residential parking lot, and hit more than a dozen cars in a row before finally stopping.
According to the daily economic news previously reported, the accident not only caused more than 10 cars to be damaged, but also seriously damaged the accident vehicles, and the cost of compensation to the owner of the hit car exceeded 400,000 yuan. The owner himself was rescued after 7 hours of rescue and blood transfusion of nearly 5,000 ml. "During the operation, I cut off 30 centimeters of small intestine and lumbar spine, which was medically identified as a grade 9 disability and I was incapacitated." The owner of the car, Mr. Chen, told reporters.
According to the City Express, Mr. Chen told the media at the time that the Model 3 did not turn on automatic assisted driving, and the vehicle suddenly lost control and accelerated, although he made emergency braking but had no effect. He also said that he is an "old driver" with more than ten years of driving experience, and he will never make the mistake of "braking and stepping on the accelerator".
However, on October 13, 2020, the Wenzhou Society of Automotive Engineers issued an "Appraisal Opinion" saying that after analyzing the background data and comparing with the EDR accident data, the brake pedals did not work (in the state of not being stepped on) within 5 seconds before the accident collision. After that, Mr. Chen made a record in the Wenzhou traffic police department, admitting that he did not step on the brakes at that time, but stepped on the accelerator as a brake.
However, after the appraisal report was released, Mr. Chen posted a video on the social platform, saying that he was only persuaded by friends to settle claims for the insurance company, and had to admit that he stepped on the wrong pedal. At the same time, it was questioned that the test of the Wenzhou Society of Automotive Engineers was carried out with the help of a special inspection tool provided by Tesla, so there was a flaw.
The court held that after the issuance of the Appraisal Opinion, the defendant Mr. Chen admitted that he did not step on the brakes at that time, but used the accelerator as a brake, so the appraisal conclusion of the Appraisal Opinion was adopted, and the accident was caused by the defendant's improper operation when encountering the situation. At the same time, after the above-mentioned appraisal opinion and accident determination were made, the defendant published information on social platforms about the damage to the plaintiff's reputation that was inconsistent with the facts, resulting in the wrong perception of the plaintiff and the plaintiff's production of the "Tesla" brand car by network users and media viewers, as well as the reduction of the plaintiff's social evaluation, which has constituted an infringement of the plaintiff's right to reputation.
Source: Daily Economic News, City Express, Sina Weibo
Editor: Huan Xi | Reviewer: September | Issued: An Hui