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Image source: Geek_Cao

Author: Cheng Xiaoyi

Editor: Ye Jinyan

Produced by: Deepnet·Tencent News Xiaoman Studio

The three-year tug of warTeslaThe rights protection incident at the Shanghai Auto Show may be coming to an end.

On August 5, Shenzhen Net learned that the second-instance judgment had been made in the reputation infringement case of Xi'an Li, one of the core parties involved in the Shanghai Auto Show incident between Tesla and the company: Tesla's braking system had no faults, and the amount of compensation that Li had to pay to Tesla was adjusted from 2,000 yuan in the first instance to 70,000 yuan.

The judicial appraisal agency commissioned by the court appraised the vehicle involved in the case, and the appraisal opinion was: Tesla's vehicle braking system is normal and effective without faults, and meets relevant technical standards. Li's appeal was not established after the first instance, and the court did not accept Li's appeal.

Ms. Li was involved in a traffic accident while driving a Tesla in March 2021. On April 19, 2021, Ms. Li and Ms. Zhang from Henan and others entered the Tesla booth at the Shanghai Auto Show, wearing clothing with the words "brake failure" and standing on the roof of the Tesla exhibition car to defend their rights. On the same day, Ms. Zhang was administratively detained for disturbing public order, and Ms. Li was given an administrative warning.

After the rights protection incident occurred, it attracted widespread attention from the whole society. After the continuous intervention of national media and agencies, Tesla agreed to provide complete driving data of the vehicle half an hour before the accident, saying that it was "willing to conduct inspections at any qualified and authoritative testing agency across the country with the consent of the customer, government designation or supervision, and with the joint witness of the three parties."

Ms. Zhang, who participated in the rights protection, sued Tesla for reputation rights and personal information protection disputes. On May 26 this year, Tesla’s official Weibo stated that the first instance court, after trial, ruled to dismiss all of Ms. Zhang’s claims in the two cases.

On May 30 this year, the law made a ruling on the case between Tesla and Ms. Zhang: Ms. Zhang from Henan, who stood on the roof of a car at the Shanghai Auto Show, was found to have violated Tesla's reputation rights and should apologize to Tesla and pay 170,000 yuan in compensation. Ms. Zhang still expresses her dissatisfaction with the ruling on social platforms.

In the past two years, there have been constant traffic accidents involving Tesla, and disputes between car owners and the company, but Tesla has basically always won the case.

In November 2022, a Tesla crashed into multiple cars while driving at high speed for two kilometers in Chaozhou, Guangdong, causing 2 deaths and 3 injuries. The owner of the car and Tesla had a dispute related to "brake failure", and the incident was resolved at the beginning of this month.

On November 1, 2023, Tesla won the lawsuit against a self-media for defamation. Documents issued by the court showed that the appraisal agency believed that the Tesla Chaozhou accident ruled out the possibility of brake and steering device failure.

Tesla has been involved in disputes since its founding. CEO Elon Musk wrote in May 2022 that“We will never seek victory in a controversial case against us, even though we may win; we will never give up on resolving an unfair case against us, even though we may lose.”

According to Tesla statistics, stepping on the wrong pedal is a common cause of traffic accidents. Smart electric vehicles represented by Tesla mostly promote the "single pedal mode", that is, although they have two pedals, the accelerator and the brake, like fuel vehicles, the difference is that when the accelerator pedal of an electric vehicle is released, kinetic energy is recovered (the wheels drive the motor to consume kinetic energy), thereby achieving deceleration. The inertia of the wheels drives the motor to generate electricity for energy recovery. In this process, the wheels consume kinetic energy because they drive the motor, thereby achieving deceleration.

Braking as soon as you release the accelerator pedal is different from the habit of stepping on the brakes in an emergency in traditional gasoline vehicles. Drivers need to make a change in habits, which is also a big challenge for car owners who have been driving fuel vehicles for a long time.

Relevant departments are also considering tightening the management of single-pedal mode.

On May 27, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited opinions on five mandatory national standards, including "Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Passenger Vehicle Braking Systems". Among them, Item 5.2.18f of "Braking System Technology" states that "For vehicles with type A and both type A and type B electric regenerative braking systems, the braking effect achieved by releasing the accelerator pedal in forward gear cannot slow the vehicle down to a stop."

In response to this, Tesla once responded to China News Weekly: "It is currently only in the stage of soliciting draft opinions."

On July 17, Tesla optimized the sensor diagnostic function of the electronic brake assist system in the latest software OTA. The official said that the purpose is to improve the accuracy and reliability of the system. Last May, Tesla also optimized the single pedal mode, including: 1. On vehicles that do not have the energy recovery braking intensity selection, provide an option to allow the driver to select the energy recovery braking intensity; 2. Adjust the factory default state of the vehicle energy recovery braking strategy; 3. Issue a reminder when the driver deeply presses the accelerator pedal for a long time.

Tesla said the update is designed to reduce the probability of traffic accidents caused by deep mis-stepping on the pedal.