My battle with Tesla: I want to clear my name before I die

[spiderfarmer]

Reportedly, Tesla is having a big issue with their accelerator pedal right now.

The thin metal cover of that pedal is not always thoroughly secured and slides off easily, wedging itself into the carpet behind the pedal. This causes the accelerator to be stuck (at high velocity!).

https://insideevs.com/news/716031/tesla-cybertruck-stuck-acc...

As a Tesla customer, you are part of the QA team. That's what you get when they make the employees of that company to afraid to speak up and report serious issues.

[KingOfCoders]

"As a Tesla customer, you are part of the QA team."

More like a stunt team.

[rob74]

In a petrol engine car you could react by shifting out of gear and flooring the brake pedal (and the clutch pedal if you have one). But what do you do in an electric car? Teslas do have a neutral gear, but it's more and more hidden with every new car generation (according to https://www.notateslaapp.com/tesla-reference/598/how-to-put-..., for some newer models it's only available via the touchscreen). So you have to hope that the brake pedal will override the gas pedal?

[mlrtime]

FWIW many car manufacturers have had almost this exact same problem. Toyota had to recall hundreds of thousands[1] of vehicles for this issue. My '19 rav4 didn't come with floor mats because the dealership didn't want to take the risk.

So the question is , how many Toyotas failed before they issued the recall, was in voluntary or forced?

1 https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/02/toyota-anno...

[huhtenberg]

Video of the CyberTruck pedal issue -

https://www.tiktok.com/@el.chepito1985/video/735775817650408...

[dzhiurgis]

> As a Tesla customer, you are part of the QA team.

Tesla sells more cars now than BMW or MB.

They have least hardware recalls in industry.

This issue is on a brand new model thats sold less than 10k vehicles.

[EasyMark]

Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward. I didn't think it was supposed to be taken literally...

[93po]

Why is this relevant to the posted story?

[m463]

carpets on the older cars is still a problem. They had round adhesive velcro patches that stuck to round smooth areas on the underside of the carpets. These would velcro to pucks that screwed into the floor carpet

there all kinds of problems - the picks would come loose, and the adhesive holding the velcro patch to the carpet would come loose in a hot car.

and the carpets would bunch up, usually under the accelerator pedal.

A lot of interior stuff was redesigned better for the newer cars, but then they killed most controls and put them on the touchscreen, ugh.

(No shifter stalk anymore, car guesses direction you want to go, no turn signal stalk, no headlight/wiper stalk, etc)

[shiroiushi]

>No shifter stalk anymore, car guesses direction you want to go, no turn signal stalk, no headlight/wiper stalk, etc

Sounds like they talked to the designers at Apple.

[bradfox2]

Our 2013 carpet does it, very annoying. Happens under the accelerator pedal.

[pjerem]

> Tesla has never provided any details about the alleged incident, either to her or in public, she says.

Well, unfortunately it looks like a classical case of "someone with some power in the company didn’t like you".

[cjk2]

I made this comment the other day. Sounds like it still applies.

Tesla are car Boeing.

[kylehotchkiss]

That’s not fair to Boeing. They have models (787) with zero hull losses.

[dzhiurgis]

You literally know nothing about either companies

[the-lazy-guy]

This does not sound as bad as you want it to.

Last time I checked, Boeing was responsible roughly for the half of all flights worldwide and fligths are 3 orders of magnitude safer than car trips.

[jajko]

Move fast and break things... not the brightest idea with heavily regulated markets when we talk about 1st world countries human lives.

But I'll probably die of old age than witness that massive childish ego admit a fuckup in any possible way. Till then, voting with my wallet and avoiding teslas like plague, novelty of cool tech gadget is long gone and reality seeps in.

[int_19h]

"Move fast and break people" would be an apt corporate slogan for Tesla.

[dzhiurgis]

> heavily regulated markets

ever wonder why the heavy regulation gave them max safety ratings

[INTPenis]

They're using startup tactics to produce 2 ton vehicles.

[tomcam]

And the Cybertruck weighs well over 3 tons

[suddenclarity]

Unless I missed it, the article seems to leave out details.

According to previous articles, she seemingly accused Tesla of corruption by placing orders to suppliers based on friendship more than quality and price. The safety issue of mats sliding was just one part of the complaints.

The article also states that Tesla never provided any details about her secret personal project, but in previous articles it was said to be her project with "a way to replace flip-down sun visors with touch-based windshield-dimming technology". This included a paid trip to New York which Tesla supposedly claim wasn't approved.

I'm not saying it makes a difference but especially the second part seems strange to leave out when the whole legal battle seems to center around it.

[janice1999]

That honestly sounds like a typical corporate smear attempt - vague, hard to (dis)prove accusations with no proof whatsoever presented.

Tesla/Elon have a track report of egregiously lying when it comes to whistleblowers or people they don't like. That includes an obviously fake shooter threat that could have killed one whistleblower [0] and Elon very publicly accusing an innocent man of being a pedophile.

I'm going to side with the whistleblower until proven otherwise.

[0] https://medium.com/bloomberg-businessweek/when-elon-musk-tri...

[hackton]

> The initials CB on a Tesla Model S battery, following Cristina Balan's design input

I don't see it, do you?

[zigman1]

Its honestly baffling how out of porch Tesla has fallen. I remember the times around when Model S first came out, the security of the car was one of the biggest praises it received. It excelled in crash tests, I don't know if this is still the case, but recently it seems like the car wants to kill you so it can show the developers which process needs improvement.

"it is all about deleting just a bit more than you feel comfortable with"

[pas]

EVs (ought to) do well because they are heavy, their center of mass is very low (because the batteries are dense and the battery pack is huge, to get the range and redundancy / current distribution), and no engine in the front, so the whole compartment can act as a big crumple zone.

[chasd00]

If Musk didn’t buy Twitter and get tech groupthink subscriber’s undergarments in a twist then Tesla would still be a tech darling. His antics on social media is doing more damage to Tesla’s brand than anything else.

[LightBug1]

At this point, how could anyone even contemplate buying from such a scummy company? ... (not necessarily staff, although you'd have to assume that many of them have bought in the Elon hype and are, as such, complicit).

If branding means anything in this day and age, how can you associate yourself with such scummy brand? As a customer or employee?

I was a fanboy a decade ago. Wouldn't touch them with your bargepole now ...

If you have one - sell it - or get the batteries repurposed into a conversion project.

[cjk2]

I bought into it back in 2017 before the marketing facade fell. I was a fool, an idiot and a moron. As an actual qualified engineer I should have looked at the whole situation in detail and read through it. After owning my model S for 9 months I sold it because it was full of quality issues and I did not feel safe driving it on a daily basis especially with my kids in the car. It regularly just slapped the brakes on and it the gains were well overstated. The doors didn't close properly, the trim didn't line up and the windscreen spontaneously cracked when it was parked in an underground garage for 2 days. Charging was a constant nightmare as well because all the limited fast chargers were either slow or busy all the time.

The experience was so bad I went to a bottom end second hand 1.0L Citroen with physical tactile controls only. I owned that for 6 years. The entire cost of the vehicle, the ownership, the fuel and all maintenance was less than the depreciation of the Model S in the time I owned it.

A lot of people are hanging on marketing and hope. That's not a safety conscious decision. It's a bad company with bad products and dubious claims.

[hypnoosi]

While I understand the concerns about the company's branding and leadership, owning a Tesla is actually a dream of mine =D

Despite everything, Tesla owners report being incredibly satisfied with their vehicles (think I saw a survey the were happiest?). Performance, innovation, and environmental benefits... Unfortunately, buying one is not within my budget at the moment. It's a goal I'm working towards, and hopefully, by the time I can afford it, the issues you've highlighted might see some resolution =P

[jstsch]

I really enjoy my second hand 2020 Model 3 LR. Amazing car, never had any issues. If I compare it to my father's 2022 Kia EV6, it's still leagues ahead.

[mschuster91]

> At this point, how could anyone even contemplate buying from such a scummy company?

Sad to say it but Tesla is still miles ahead of the competition in specs (power, torque, speed, range) at the respective pricepoints.

[tasuki]

> Ultimately, Ms Balan says, she has doggedly pursued the case for so long because she wants to prove her innocence to her son.

This... does not make any sense? Like, I don't even know about this case, but it's kind of obvious she was let go because Tesla didn't like to hear what she had to say? Why would her own son of all people think she was guilty?

[guax]

The sentiment is: I don't want to die and having my son read in the news or be told by others that his mother was a thief.

It makes tons of sense.

[neglesaks]

>"I want to clear my name. I wish Elon Musk had the decency to apologise," is her message to the company’s billionaire boss.

Know this: You will never get a narcissist to genuinely apologize.

[Fnoord]

The amount of children he has (like George Clooney), even multiple women pregnant at the same time [1]. I don't understand why women fall for it, and assume this time it is different. Though maybe that is part of the package deal?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Personal_life

[WinstonSmith84]

Sure, but... it's easy to imagine what an apology would cause: a precedent. That would open the door to a lot more potential issues.

[snovv_crash]

Is this an issue the scale of Dieselgate? Because it seems that's roughly what it takes for an automotive CEO to issue an apology.

[nprateem]

But you might get a fat cheque from a billionaire.

[chasd00]

How does getting someone to apologize “clear” your name? Heh sounds like she’s the narcissist.

[WinstonSmith84]

Indeed, Pyramids have not been built with human rights in mind

[edgineer]

The problem was the driver footwell carpet curling up? Seems like you'd notice it's not staying in place long before it gets stuck under a pedal, no?

[bayindirh]

Nope. The problem is the accelerator pedal can be telescopic and latch itself under a seam.

You either need to remove the seam, or make the pedal non telescopic.