A Munich court has ordered Tesla to reimburse a customer for most of the 112,000 euros she paid for a Model X utility vehicle because of problems with the autopilot system, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.
A technical report showed that Autopilot did not reliably recognize obstacles, such as a narrowing of a construction site, and would sometimes apply the brakes unnecessarily.
This could cause a “great risk” and lead to collisions, the court ruled.
Tesla’s lawyers argued that Autopilot was not designed for city traffic, according to Der Spiegel. The court, however, found that it was not feasible for drivers to manually turn the feature on and off in different terrain situations, as this could distract them from driving.
Tesla representatives were not immediately available for comment to Reuters.
US safety regulators are investigating Tesla’s autopilot function after reports of 16 accidents, including seven with reported injuries and one death.
Tesla says Autopilot allows vehicles to automatically orient themselves within their lanes, but does not make them autonomous.
Musk said in March that Tesla is likely to release a trial version of the new “Full Self-Driving” software in Europe later this year, pending regulatory approval.
“It’s very difficult to drive fully autonomously in Europe,” Musk told workers at the company’s Berlin factory at the time, saying a lot of work needs to be done to deal with tricky driving situations on the continent, where roads vary greatly from country to country. .
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