Tesla has been criticized in China for the safety of its cars. In a publication of the state news agency, the American manufacturer is called on to improve this. That does not seem like a coincidence, in the US the safety of Teslas is again under discussion this week after a bizarre accident.
China has urged Tesla to pay more attention to the safety of its cars. An article by state news agency Xinhua states that the American company must do that to gain the trust of consumers. In doing so, Xinhua referred to things such as malfunctioning brakes and cars that go up in flames during loading.
It is not the first time that Tesla has faced headwinds due to safety in China. Supervisors have already called the company to the mat because of battery burns and abnormal acceleration of the vehicles. Tesla also had to apologize to the operator of the Chinese electricity network. In a video, Tesla employees appeared to point to a sudden power difference on the network as the cause of damage to a car. It was also recently revealed that Chinese military personnel with a Tesla are no longer allowed to park their car on or near military sites. The government would not trust the cameras in the Teslas. Despite this, Tesla is still very popular in China, where the company has its own factory. In March, Tesla delivered almost 35,000 cars.
The public criticism of Tesla comes at a time when the company is already in the spotlight in China. During the auto show in Shanghai on Monday, a woman climbed on the roof of a Tesla Model 3 in protest. The woman has been campaigning against the company for some time because she and her family had almost died due to faltering brakes. Tesla states that the brakes just worked and the company would have offered various solutions in negotiations with the woman. However, according to Tesla, the woman would refuse to have the Tesla investigated by an independent party.
Crash in the US
Tesla is also in the news this week in the United States, because a Tesla crashed in Texas, killing two people. The victims were in the passenger seat and in the backseat, making it look like no one was behind the wheel. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Autopilot was not on, according to the company’s data.