G7, a Paris-based taxi company that operates one of the largest Tesla taxi fleets in the world, announced that it suspended all its Model 3 taxis after a severe fatal crash that occurred last weekend.
One of the company’s drivers was driving the Model 3 taxi as a personal vehicle on December 11 in Paris when they lost control, hit a cyclist, and ran over several pedestrians before crashing into a van.
The accident resulted in one death and injured 20 people, putting three in critical condition.
After the crash, the Model 3 driver, who wasn’t hurt, claimed that a “technical issue” resulted in the vehicle accelerating by itself.
Today, the taxi company G7 announced that it suspended all its drivers who drive Tesla Model 3 vehicles for fear of an issue.
The company commented (translated from French via Le Figaro):
“As a precautionary measure and in accordance with our procedures, G7 has decided to suspend the 37 drivers affiliated to G7 equipped with the model similar to the vehicle involved, pending the investigation.”
G7 also operates a fleet of 50 Tesla Model S vehicles, but those are going to remain in service.
Tesla France already commented, stating that there’s no indication that a technical defect was involved in this accident.
Tesla sudden acceleration
Claims of sudden unintended acceleration in Tesla vehicles are not new.
Last year, we reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that it is looking into claims that Tesla vehicles have a defect leading to “sudden unintended acceleration” after receiving a petition citing 127 claimed incidents.
As we stated at the time, several claims of sudden unintended acceleration involving Tesla vehicles have been made public over the years. The most publicized one involved a South Korean celebrity claiming his Model X accelerated on its own into his garage.
However, in every case, including that one, Tesla claimed that the car’s log showed that it was a user mistake due to pedal misapplication, meaning that the driver pressed on the accelerator instead of the brakes.
In one case, Electrek was able to have Tesla’s log verified by a third party, and it supported the automaker’s claims that it showed the driver pressed on the accelerator.
Following the NHTSA investigation, Tesla issued a statement claiming that there are no defects in its vehicles resulting in unintended acceleration and that the petition with NHTSA was started by a TSLA short seller.
Tesla is also facing a similar investigation in China.
Earlier this year, the NHTSA released the results from its investigations stating that Tesla incidents involving claims of ” vehicles accelerating by themselves” were due to drivers using the wrong pedal.
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