Her 1-year-old was in the backseat when the screen showed the Tesla Cybertruck wasn’t turning.
HOUSTON — A Houston woman is suing Tesla for more than $1 million after her Cybertruck, which she says was operating in full self-driving mode, nearly plunged off an overpass near Humble and crashed into a concrete barrier, injuring her while her 1-year-old child was inside the vehicle.
Justine Saint Amour was driving along the Eastex Freeway near the Eastex Park-and-Ride exit when the incident occurred. According to court records, she disengaged the full self-driving mode, but her attorney says the intervention came too late to prevent the crash.
Plaintiff’s attorney Bob Hilliard says his client had no time to react before the truck headed straight for the barrier.
“At the last second she looked at the screen and saw that the Tesla truck was not going to go left and it was not going to go right, it was going to go straight over the overpass.”
Hilliard argues the nature of the technology creates an impossible situation for drivers who hand control over to the system.
“Even a very alert driver who allows the truck to drive itself, as it says it can, can’t go from passenger to emergency-driver reaction in a blink of an eye, and that’s what Tesla expects.”
The attorney also took issue with how Tesla markets its self-driving technology, suggesting the branding overpromises what the system actually delivers.
“It is a driver-assist Tesla, basically cruise control on steroids. But the marketing tells the driver that it’s fully self driving.”
Saint Amour was injured in the crash. Her 1-year-old child, who was also in the vehicle at the time, was not hurt.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
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