Cars
Oh boy, another Tesla Model X just crashed into another Florida gym
Could this be caused by user error or was Tesla at fault here? We’ll find out soon enough.
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Tesla really can’t catch a break right now. Another Tesla Model X accident is making its rounds in the media cycle when one of the company’s vehicles crashed into a Florida gym, nearly missing a couple of the gym’s clients. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
This all went down last Sunday at an Anytime Fitness gym north of the Tampa area, and a security camera got it all on film. As you can see in the video above, the footage shows some a man stepping down from a treadmill when all of a sudden, a car comes crashing through the gym at a reasonable speed, eventually coming to a halt when it hits several pieces of gym equipment.
Apparently, according to the driver, the car accelerated on its own. The driver claims she was slamming on her brakes while the car crashed through the gym. At this time, investigators are currently reviewing if Autopilot was engaged or not.
Tesla responded to the accident and stated the safety of its customers:
We investigate the vehicle diagnostic logs in every accident in which a driver claims their car ‘suddenly’ and ‘unexpectedly’ accelerated, and in every case the vehicle’s diagnostic logs confirm that the vehicle operated as designed. Accidents involving ‘pedal misapplication,’ in which a driver presses the accelerator pedal by mistake, occur in all types of vehicles, not just Teslas. The accelerator pedals in Tesla vehicles have two redundant sensors that clearly show us when the pedal is physically pressed down, such as by the driver’s foot.
Tesla takes these sort of crashes very seriously and will try to figure out the cause of the accident as soon as possible in hopes to prove their technology wasn’t at fault.
What makes things even more interesting, this isn’t the first time a Tesla vehicle has crashed into a Florida gym. Back in 2016, a Model S driver plowed into a fitness facility 30 miles north of Miami. The driver claimed the car sped up by itself. However, Tesla reviewed the vehicle’s log and found, from what they believe, the driver pressed the accelerator pedal shortly before the accident.
In a statement to Electrek, Telsa stated that cars “do not accelerate without the driver instructing it to do so.” They added, “in every situation where we have received a customer claim about this, the vehicle’s diagnostic logs have confirmed that the acceleration was the result of the driver pressing the accelerator pedal.”
We’ll find out for sure if this was the case in Sunday’s accident soon enough.
Do you feel like this is a case of driver error or do you think Tesla’s technology was at fault? Let us know what you think down below in the comments.
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