A taxi driver crashed his Tesla and blamed the car for the incident. If that sounds familiar, it is because you have already heard this story. The difference is that it happened on May 13 in Bergen, Norway, not in Paris on December 11, 2021, and that it involved a Model Y, not a Model 3. Unlike the French collision, the Norwegian episode did not kill anyone: it only destroyed the car and all objects that stood in its way.
According to the Bergen police, the taxi came from Vaskerelven (a street in Bergen) and turned right on Torggaten at around 4:30 AM. At that point, the vehicle started speeding and crashed into the outdoor seating area of the Lille Bar. That alerted Jonas Olsen, a guest at the Hotel Noreg. He was on the balcony of his room when he heard the first impact.
NRK wrote that Olsen picked up his phone and started shooting the only video of the wreck we have so far. It shows the white Model Y accelerating through Torggaten while it ripped a pole for pedestrian protection from the ground, climbed a few stairs, and eventually stopped when it hit a Narvesen kiosk in Torgallmenningen, right in front of a McDonald's. The police was informed about the wreck at 4:41 AM.
Photo: Bergen Police Department
All reports I have seen so far failed to describe something crucial about the situation: there is a taxi stop close to Lille Bar. The Model Y driver was probably preparing to park there, which is the same situation that precedes all sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) cases involving Tesla vehicles.
Costas Lakafossis discovered that Autopilot could brake and accelerate the BEV maker's products when they are parking. One owner even told the accident investigator that he did not have to brake for the car because it did that on its own. That "convenience" breaks the feedback loop sequence on which open-loop controls rely. In other words, it lets the driver without the necessary reference of where the pedals are. If the car does not stop as expected, the driver may rush and step on the accelerator pedal instead of the one that controls the brakes. If you ask them, they'll tell you they were stepping on the correct pedal.
Photo: Paris Police
The video shot by Olsen seems to show the Model Y with the brake lights working, but that is not correct. The taxi sign in Norway has a red light in the back that resembles a third brake light. The Tesla taxi did not activate its brake lights a single time in the footage. According to Dan Erik Johannessen, the West police district's operations manager, the driver still told police officers that "there was something wrong with the vehicle," but he did not elaborate on what. Although he was awakened and conscious, the taxi driver was taken to the Haukeland Hospital in an ambulance. The case is still under investigation, but the driver was already (weirdly) charged with careless driving.
Lakafossis wrote a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to ask for all Tesla vehicles to be recalled. He proposed for the BEV maker to adopt Brake Transmission Shift Interlocks (BTSIs) in its cars, which would force drivers to step on the brakes before shifting from drive (D) to reverse (R). Right after that information became public, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) started investigating the issue. Tesla moved fast there and proposed to issue a recall for 1,104,622 BEVs. They will now warn drivers when the accelerator pedal is pressed to 100% for a long time and allow them to select the "energy regenerative braking strategy" that these vehicles will follow.
Photo: Jérôme Coumet
Could these measures have spared the Norwegian taxi driver from this crash? If he thought the Model Y would stop on its own, and it didn't, he may have mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of on the brakes. Would a warning about the accelerator pedal give him enough time to react, considering this crash took only a few seconds to happen? I asked Lakafossis what he thought about the changes the recall would make.
"My proposal for a shift interlock is not the only solution. It is the simplest and most straightforward that I could think of, but there are other, more complex software solutions to the issue. When the details of the OTA update come out, we will know more."
Photo: Janchubi/Weibo
The accident investigator also talked about how the Chinese authorities described the issue.
"I think that the wording is careful in order to prevent people from understanding the connection between this recall and older cases (and, of course, my petition). There is a possibility that they will do more in order to prevent the issue but not openly admit it. The very important point is that they are forced to recognize the issue. If the issue is recognized and accepted as valid, it will be addressed eventually (and I trust the NHTSA to solve this once the cat is out of the bag)."
According to my sources at NHTSA, the safety regulator is aware of the Chinese recall and is now talking to Tesla to understand the measures and to decide if they should also be applied to cars in the US. Considering American units sold in China will receive the safety updates, there is no reason for them not to be pushed into those sold in the US, Europe, and anywhere else where customers purchased them.
Editor's note:
Bergen Taxi told autoevolution tha the Tesla taxi cab involved in the crash was a Model Y, not a Model 3. This text already reflects the correction.
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