Tesla Driver Sues, Saying Car Went Rogue and Forced Him to Crash It

"As a result of the attack, [he] suffered serious and permanent injuries."

Ride the Frightening

In a new lawsuit, a rideshare driver claims that a Tesla he was operating for work went rogue and began driving on its own — nearly clipped some bystanders in the process, and ultimately forcing him to crash it to end the rampage.

The complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court by Revel livery driver Akm Shamsuzzaman, claims the car "suddenly and automatically accelerated forward" without prompting in a parking garage.

Shamsuzzaman, the filing reads, "pressed the brake pedal, but the motor vehicle would not stop."

"With no other way to stop, [the driver] steered the motor vehicle into an empty parking space and crashed in an empty parking space," it continues. "As a result of the attack, [he] suffered serious and permanent injuries."

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Shamsuzzaman's lawyer Daniel Shimko said that before the driver managed to steer the Tesla away, it "almost hit a few people."

Boldly, the lawsuit alleges that the unspecified model was "negligently and dangerously designed," and that Tesla owes Shamsuzzaman unspecified damages because it "failed to provide... sufficient warning on the dangers and risks" of operating the electric vehicle, which ultimately led to bodily harm.

Tesla Coil

This isn't the first time Tesla has been sued over its cars going haywire.

Just last month, Tesla won a lawsuit filed by a Los Angeles woman who alleged the company was at fault when her Model S, which she was driving in the misleadingly-labeled "Autopilot" mode, swerved on its own into a curb. The malfunction allegedly caused the car's airbag to deploy "so violently it fractured [her] jaw, knocked out teeth, and caused nerve damage to her face," Reuters reported.

Beyond the courts, Tesla's Autopilot and quote-unquote "Full Self-Driving" features are also the subjects of a probe by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration because, it says, the cars keep crashing into parked emergency vehicles when using the technology.

These problems have garnered such bad press, in fact, that Tesla put a pause on new FSD installations earlier this year.

It could be years before this New York rideshare driver gets his chance at justice in court — and who knows how many more Tesla accidents there will be in the meantime.

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