Lawsuit alleged defects with both Tesla’s self-driving and Model 3 flammability.
Tesla has denied that “any defect in the Autopilot system caused or contributed” to the 2022 death of a Tesla employee, Hans von Ohain, whose Tesla Model 3 burst into flames after the car suddenly veered off a road and crashed into a tree.
“Von Ohain fought to regain control of the vehicle, but, to his surprise and horror, his efforts were prevented by the vehicle’s Autopilot features, leaving him helpless and unable to steer back on course,” a wrongful death lawsuit filed in May by von Ohain’s wife, Nora Bass, alleged.
In Tesla’s response to the lawsuit filed Thursday, the carmaker also denied that the 2021 vehicle had any defects, contradicting Bass’ claims that Tesla knew that the car should have been recalled but chose to “prioritize profits over consumer safety.”
As detailed in her complaint, initially filed in a Colorado state court, Bass believes the Tesla Model 3 was defective in that it “did not perform as safely as an ordinary consumer would have expected it to perform” and “the benefits of the vehicle’s design did not outweigh the risks.”
Instead of acknowledging alleged defects and exploring alternative designs, Tesla marketed the car as being engineered “to be the safest” car “built to date,” Bass’ complaint said.
Von Ohain was particularly susceptible to this marketing, Bass has said, because he considered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be a “brilliant man,” The Washington Post reported. “We knew the technology had to learn, and we were willing to be part of that,” Bass said, but the couple didn’t realize how allegedly dangerous it could be to help train “futuristic technology,” The Post reported.
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In Tesla’s response, the carmaker defended its marketing of the Tesla Model 3, denying that the company “engaged in unfair and deceptive acts or practices.”
“The product in question was not defective or unreasonably dangerous,” Tesla’s filing said.
Insisting in its response that the vehicle was safe when it was sold, Tesla again disputed Bass’ complaint, which claimed that “at no time after the purchase of the 2021 Tesla Model 3 did any person alter, modify, or change any aspect or component of the vehicle’s design or manufacture.” Contradicting this, Tesla suggested that the car “may not have been in the same condition at the time of the crash as it was at the time when it left Tesla’s custody.”
The Washington Post broke the story about von Ohain’s fatal crash, reporting that it may be “the first documented fatality linked to the most advanced driver assistance technology offered” by Tesla. In response to Tesla’s filing, Bass’ attorney, Jonathan Michaels, told The Post that his team is “committed to advocating fiercely for the von Ohain family, ensuring they receive the justice they deserve.”
Michaels told The Post that perhaps as significant as alleged autonomous driving flaws, the Tesla Model 3 was also allegedly defective “because of the intensity of the fire that ensued after von Ohain hit the tree, which ultimately caused his death.” According to the Colorado police officer looking into the crash, Robert Madden, the vehicle fire was among “the most intense” he’d ever investigated, The Post reported.
Lawyers for Bass and Tesla did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.
Tesla partly blames driver for crash
Bass has asked a jury to award damages for wrongful death and survival, hoping to recover funds for her and the couple’s young daughter, “who will never know her father.”
Earlier this week, Tesla filed Monday to move the case to federal court because the damages claimed likely exceed $75,000. In its response to her complaint, Tesla also argued that Bass’ right to recover any damages should be reduced, because any injuries were seemingly either caused by von Ohain’s negligence or some entity other than Tesla.
Tesla seems to be emphasizing there that Bass’ complaint avoids mentioning that an autopsy found that von Ohain’s blood alcohol level was “more than three times the legal limit in Colorado,” The Washington Post reported at the time of the crash.
Von Ohain had apparently been drinking while golfing that day, but Michaels told The Post that the family intends to dispute the toxicology report, as the surviving passenger, Erik Rossiter, who registered a similar level of intoxication after the crash, told cops that von Ohain did not appear too intoxicated to drive.
Rossiter also told the cops that the Tesla Model 3 self-driving issues started on the way to the golf course, when Ohain “struggled to navigate the mountain curves” and had to “repeatedly” “yank” the car “back on course,” The Post reported.
In its response, Tesla suggested that von Ohain “misused the 2021 Tesla Model 3.” Although Tesla said it still needed to complete discovery and its own investigation into the crash, the carmaker suggested that claims should be tossed because the family failed to “preserve evidence relating to the 2021 Tesla Model 3, the crash, or their claims.”
At least some of that evidence, state investigators said, went up in flames. Cops were “unable to access data from the car” because of “the intensity of the fire,” The Post reported.
It’s unclear if Tesla is likely to prevail or settle in this case. Last October, a jury found that Tesla was not responsible for a similar fatal Tesla Model 3 crash, partly because the driver was drinking before the accident. But more recently, Tesla settled a wrongful death suit in April where a driver allegedly unsafely used the self-driving feature while distracted by a mobile phone game.
According to The Post, Tesla is currently defending against at least eight lawsuits alleging flaws in its self-driving technologies, but “in recent months” seemed more willing to settle, “despite Musk’s vow on Twitter in 2022 to never settle ‘an unjust case against us even if we will probably lose.'”
For now, Tesla seems prepared to fight Bass’ claims, noting in a filing Monday that “Tesla disputes that it is liable for any damages whatsoever.”
