Thanks to the instant torque from the electric motors, Tesla vehicles are well known for their lightning quick acceleration. That acceleration can sometimes be blamed for accidents, often referred to as ‘unintended acceleration.’
In these cases, drivers try to blame the accident on something wrong with the vehicle. These claims eventually resulted in an investigation by the NHTSA last year. Examining detailed logs from the vehicles, they determined it was driver error – thinking they were hitting the brakes when in fact they were hitting the accelerator.
Despite this finding, a Model Y owner in Mountain View, California is blaming his parking lot accident on unintended acceleration.
Bill Aguilar posted the TeslaCam footage of the accident to YouTube, showing him slowly pull into a fairly empty parking lot. The problems start almost right away as he ramps the curb after pulling into a parking spot.
Things go from bad to worse from there. He slowly pulls forward into the bushes even more, then floors it across the other side. The one week old Model Y slams into a tree, and then hits the curb surrounding another tree, completely shearing off his right front wheel. The wheel then goes flying into an unsuspecting Model 3 parked nearby.
Not only does he blame unintended acceleration, he also tries to claim there was a fire behind the steering wheel due to “burn holes” on the airbags.
Fortunately there were no injuries, except maybe to the driver’s ego.
Check out the video, and let us know what you think happened in the comments below.
UPDATE: It looks like the owner has backed off his claim of unintended acceleration by deleting his video. Fortunately the internet is forever, so here’s another copy.
