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Man Sues Tesla Claiming Model X ‘Spontaneously’ Crashed Through His Home

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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Tesla Motors was sued Friday by a California man who claims his parked electric vehicle suddenly accelerated through his garage and into his living room.

The lawsuit claims that Ji Chang Son, the owner of a Model X SUV, was injured one night in September after his Model X SUV suddenly blasted through his house as he was slowly pulling into his garage.

“The vehicle spontaneously began to accelerate at full power, jerking forward and crashing through the interior wall of the garage, destroying several wooden support beams in the wall and a steel sewer pipe, among other things, and coming to rest in Plaintiffs’ living room,” the lawsuit said.

Son wants the lawsuit to become a class action case. The lawsuit, filed at the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, cites seven other cases dealing with Tesla vehicles accelerating without warning.

Tesla is contesting the lawsuit, suggesting the wreck was caused after Son pressed the vehicle’s accelerator all the way to the floor.

“The evidence, including data from the car, conclusively shows that the crash was the result of Mr. Son pressing the accelerator pedal all the way to 100 percent,” a Tesla spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Tesla claims the Model X is the safest vehicle in U.S. history and prides itself on transparency — but the company has a history of covering up wrecks and other incidents.

Reports from earlier in 2016 showed the California-based automaker was aware a man died using the company’s autopilot technology in May when it sold $2 billion in stock to raise capital to produce the Model 3.

Tesla “immediately” notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the accident and death of Joshua Brown, Tesla said in a statement in June. Brown was killed when his Model S collided with a tractor-trailer.

NHTSA chose to sit on the information until announcing in late June.

Less than two weeks after Brown died, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk sold more than $2 billion of Tesla stock in a public offering at a price of $215 per share—the electric vehicle company did all of this without notifying its shareholders or the public about the wreck.

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