Last week, the owner of a Tesla Model S in China reportedly wound up "going along for the ride" as his beloved EV "accelerated on its own" and drove right into a river that was close the Supercharging station he was near. The Model S wound up driving itself through a fence before winding up submerged near the Tesla Qingpu District Supercharger in Shanghai. Driver Xiao Chen was pulling away from the Supercharger when he claims that the car accelerated "out of control".
A Chinese media report had more details on the freak accident:
“When the reporter rushed to the scene in Qingpu District, the owner Xiao Chen had just been rescued ashore, and the gray Tesla was still lying in the river and was soaked in the water. Xiao Chen is still in shock, he told reporters: I was from the beginning stepping on the brakes, and the car suddenly rushed out of control! It turned out that Xiao Chen and his wife drove the car to school in the morning of the incident. After the delivery, they came to the Tesla Supercharger station to prepare for charging. According to Xiao Chen, he kept driving very slowly, stepping on the brakes, but when he got there, the car was out of control.
Video of the car being lifted out of the water also surface on Twitter last week.
Meanwhile in China, Tesla owner accidentally drives Model S into the river at the Supercharger Station. local media coverage? (Part 3)#Tesla #TeslaChina #TeslaCrash #China $TSLA # 特斯拉 pic.twitter.com/6nA2ASxKJa
— JayinShanghai (@ShanghaiJayin) March 6, 2019
This is hardly the first incident of Tesla vehicles accelerating on their own that has made the news over the last several years.
In May 2018, we reported on one of the other more recent instances of "unintended acceleration", when a Model S in Autopilot was found to have sped up before slamming into a stopped firetruck in Salt Lake City. Back in 2016, we reported that Tesla was being sued by a Model X owner who claimed that his vehicle "suddenly accelerated while being parked, causing it to crash through the garage of his home and into his living room, injuring the driver and a passenger." The lawsuit, at the time, sought class action status noting at least seven other complaints from owners of similar incidents.