Photo: Tesla
We’ll probably never know if Elon Musk regrets not testing the Model S enough before putting it for sale. Any profits Tesla may have made with it have probably vanished with all repairs the company had to perform so far. In Austria, it tried to lower these losses by offering a customer ten times more money than a court granted him for two issues in the car just for him to keep quiet about them. The Model S owner refused.
According to Die Presse, the unidentified man sued Tesla Motors Austria GmbH for three problems with his car – a Model S 90D bought in March 2017. One of them was not granted by the Graz Regional Court, and Die Presse apparently did not mention what it was. Neither did Teslamag, which also published the story.
Regarding the other two complaints filed under the 39 Cg 28/20 x - 79 number at the Austrian court, the main one was that the battery pack actually offers 84 kWh and not 90 kWh, as the name implies. We have no idea how the judges evaluated this, but it gives us the impression that they would also consider Autopilot and Full Self-Driving false advertising. For that discrepancy, Tesla was ordered to pay €2,000 ($1,951 at the current exchange rate).
The other complaint considered valid by the Graz Regional Court relates to a chronic issue with the Model S: the yellow screen. When Tesla released the Model S, the massive infotainment screen of the MCU did not have an automotive grade, as Edward Niedermeyer revealed on July 2 writing for The Drive. In other words, it was not tested for the harsh conditions vehicles are subject to. When exposed to them, the components tend to fail.
That caused the infotainment screen to have bubbles, leak a goo that looked like transparent glue, and get yellow. The man replaced the component, and it turned yellow again. This is not the only problem with the MCU: it also has an eMMC flash memory card that fails after around four years. In the U.S., Tesla was forced to replace these components in a recall. The Austrian lawsuit apparently did not mention this problem, only the yellow screen. To compensate the Model S owner for it, the Austrian court granted him €500 ($488). It is here that the story gets more interesting.
The Model S owner told Teslamag that Tesla offered him €20,000 if he agreed to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and “never talk about it again.” The idea is simple: the ruling may become a precedent for other Model S 90 or Model X 90 customers in Austria and other European countries to ask for the same compensation. By paying the man €20,000, Tesla would make sure the precedent didn’t exist and that it did not have to pay €2,000 for hundreds or even thousands of other clients.
According to Teslamag, the Model S owner refused that because he wanted other customers who had been "ripped off" by Tesla to also get some money back from the company. It will be interesting to follow how many of them will decide to follow the legal measures this customer has taken.
Regarding the other two complaints filed under the 39 Cg 28/20 x - 79 number at the Austrian court, the main one was that the battery pack actually offers 84 kWh and not 90 kWh, as the name implies. We have no idea how the judges evaluated this, but it gives us the impression that they would also consider Autopilot and Full Self-Driving false advertising. For that discrepancy, Tesla was ordered to pay €2,000 ($1,951 at the current exchange rate).
The other complaint considered valid by the Graz Regional Court relates to a chronic issue with the Model S: the yellow screen. When Tesla released the Model S, the massive infotainment screen of the MCU did not have an automotive grade, as Edward Niedermeyer revealed on July 2 writing for The Drive. In other words, it was not tested for the harsh conditions vehicles are subject to. When exposed to them, the components tend to fail.
That caused the infotainment screen to have bubbles, leak a goo that looked like transparent glue, and get yellow. The man replaced the component, and it turned yellow again. This is not the only problem with the MCU: it also has an eMMC flash memory card that fails after around four years. In the U.S., Tesla was forced to replace these components in a recall. The Austrian lawsuit apparently did not mention this problem, only the yellow screen. To compensate the Model S owner for it, the Austrian court granted him €500 ($488). It is here that the story gets more interesting.
The Model S owner told Teslamag that Tesla offered him €20,000 if he agreed to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and “never talk about it again.” The idea is simple: the ruling may become a precedent for other Model S 90 or Model X 90 customers in Austria and other European countries to ask for the same compensation. By paying the man €20,000, Tesla would make sure the precedent didn’t exist and that it did not have to pay €2,000 for hundreds or even thousands of other clients.
According to Teslamag, the Model S owner refused that because he wanted other customers who had been "ripped off" by Tesla to also get some money back from the company. It will be interesting to follow how many of them will decide to follow the legal measures this customer has taken.
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