TESLA

Company responds to unfounded accusations from Reuters news agency

On December 20, Reuters published an article in which it accused Tesla of, despite knowing that some of its vehicles had suspension problems that caused accidents, contesting customers' complaints, accusing them of misuse. According to the news agency, the North American builder was thus exempting himself from responsibility, as well as having to face the corresponding repair costs.

Claiming to have had access to “thousands of Tesla documents”, with the information being corroborated by “more than 20 interviews with customers and nine former managers and service technicians”, Reuters claims that the manufacturer was aware of these problems, some more than seven years old, but which internally ordered its assistance services to “refuse that the parts break due to material or construction defects”.

At issue are the Model S's previous suspensions, with a geometry of overlapping triangles, in which the lower one is formed by two interconnected arms. According to Reuters, whether due to problems with the materials used by the parts supplier or due to design deficiencies, the arms will tend to become loose and even break, causing accidents.

A week after the publication of the agency's article, Tesla reacted with a tweet on the social network X. It accused Reuters of “publishing an article with a misleading title and full of incomplete and demonstrably incorrect information”. The manufacturer disputes that it avoided its responsibility to undertake the repairs, stating that it “covered the costs of most of the 120,000 vehicles involved” and draws attention to “the damaged part shown in the photo”, having remained “in this post-accident state ”, which led her to conclude that the owner “fabricated” the story.

Tesla guarantees that its system of sensors and cameras is the most complete and complex on the market, recording everything that happens on board, from the speed in the moments before the impact, to the angle of the steering wheel and the pressure exerted on the accelerator or brake. . Hence, according to the brand, the customer was informed that “telemetry allowed the accident to be analyzed and concluded that it did not occur under conditions covered by the warranty”.

All road accidents that occur in the USA with victims or considerable damage are analyzed in detail by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), whose technicians decide whether the responsibility lies with the vehicle, the driver or the road structure. Accidents involving electric vehicles always deserve extra attention, with emphasis on Teslas, especially due to Autopilot, a driving assistance device that has many fans, but also detractors. And the NHTSA, an independent federal body – which has already imposed multimillion-dollar fines on errant brands, such as the VW Group due to Dieselgate – had the opportunity to analyze in detail the cases that took place in the USA with the suspensions of Teslas, as well as other builders, not having reached the same conclusions as Reuters journalists.

This is not the first exchange of arguments between the news agency and Tesla, with the American publication Electrek recalling an occasion when Reuters reported that Tesla sold vehicles in Canada imported from China, accusing Elon Musk, the company's CEO, of being untruthful when he stated that the article was false. It turns out that, according to journalist Fred Lambert from Electrek, through print screens, it appears that not only was Musk right, but Reuters “corrected the previously published article” and then “lied about having edited it”, he states.

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