Tesla not only knew its cars were suddenly “veering” and killing owners, it gave this deadly design flaw a name when it decided to not fix it six years ago.
Jonathan Michaels, who represents the passengers, showed jurors a 2017 internal Tesla safety analysis identifying “incorrect steering command” as a defect, involving an “excessive” steering wheel angle.
“They predicted this was going to happen. They knew about it. They named it,” Michaels said. Tesla developed a protocol to deal with customers who experienced it, he said, and instructed employees to accept no liability or responsibility for the problem.
This coverup helps prove one of the reasons, out of the seemingly growing list, why Tesla crash fatally far more than other cars.
The latest ADAS safety data published by the NHTSA indicates Tesla now has a fatality rate of one out of every ten crashes.
In related news, photos of the Tesla Truck are circulating that show a dangerous control arm design failure.
Control arms are crucial components for safety, yet Tesla continues its terrible record of cheap unreliable designs that fail catastrophically.
Compare a cheap and flimsy stamped metal plate in the new/used Tesla photos above with this known safe truck design. The difference is hopefully obvious.
You might think that Tesla would have thought about this a lot after making over 700,000 Model 3 using an obviously bad design with dangerously failing control arms. But no, they don’t seem to think at all about real safety.
The problem is simple enough to identify: The water channels from the Tesla windshield drain directly onto the control arms on the left and right front corners of the vehicles. Because the OE control arms are a plastic and steel composite component, and had been designed with insufficient moisture protection, the plastic overmold can crack or delaminate, causing water to seep into the ball joint – eventually impacting the lifespan of the part and, in rare cases, compromising steering precision.
Calling it rare cases of failure is being too generous. Even one catasrophic control arm failure is too many.
Related: Dangerous Tesla accelerator pedal design flaw has been unfixed for a decade. Somehow owners are still surprised when it breaks.