Whether because of environmental concerns or high fuel prices, a growing number of Americans are swapping internal combustion engines for electric vehicles. In fact, according to reporting from CNBC, Americans bought approximately 535,000 electric vehicles last year alone. Tesla manufactured roughly 60% of these vehicles.
Some of Tesla’s electric vehicles seem to have a problem with braking unexpectedly. As Reuters reports, the U.S. government is currently looking into more than 400,000 complaints of sudden and unpredictable stopping.
Unexpected braking
Reducing human error is one of the major advantages of driving a smart electric vehicle. After all, these vehicles have hundreds of automated safety features. Regrettably, though, when collision avoidance systems malfunction, they may do more harm than good.
It is not hard to see why unexpected braking can be an extreme safety risk. If you are driving behind a Tesla that stops out of the blue and for seemingly no reason, you may accidentally collide with it. If you are moving rapidly, of course, you may suffer catastrophic injuries in the rear-end collision.
Staying safe
You simply cannot know whether the Tesla in front of your vehicle is prone to stopping unexpectedly. Therefore, you should keep the braking problem in the back of your mind every time you leave home. Allowing some extra space when you are following Tesla vehicles just may save your life. At a minimum, it may keep you from having an inconvenient fender-bender.
It is not yet clear how the government’s investigation into unexpected stops is going to end. In the meantime, if you suffer a serious injury in a rear-end collision with a Tesla, you may have grounds to pursue significant financial compensation.