Watch The Moment A Tesla Model X Smashed Into A Gym

In what looks to be a classic case of pedal confusion, a Model X driver in Florida managed to plough into a gym

27 Apr 2018

People busy lifting and doing other gym-related things at Anytime Fitness in Pasco County, Florida received quite a surprise last weekend. One patron was stepping off a treadmill when right in front of him, a Tesla Model X smashed through the wall.

The CCTV footage you see in the news report above actually shows the second wall the Tesla ploughed through. The car was first crashed into an empty unit which until recently was occupied by a karate school.

The unidentified driver was pulling into the parking lot to visit a nail salon at the time of the accident — The unidentified driver was pulling into the parking lot to visit a nail…

According to ABC Action News, the driver - who was not breathalysed at the scene - told investigators “she was trying to brake but her Tesla accelerated instead.” Sounds an awful lot like pedal confusion, and sure enough, a statement from Tesla seems to confirm this:

“We investigate the vehicle diagnostic logs in every accident in which a driver claims their car ‘suddenly’ and ‘unexpectedly’ accelerated, and in every case the vehicle’s diagnostic logs confirm that the vehicle operated as designed. Accidents involving ‘pedal misapplication,’ in which a driver presses the accelerator pedal by mistake, occur in all types of vehicles, not just Teslas. The accelerator pedals in Tesla vehicles have two redundant sensors that clearly show us when the pedal is physically pressed down, such as by the driver’s foot.”

Thankfully, neither the driver nor any bystanders were injured in this bizarre crash.
Sources: ABC Action News, ABC 15

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

There seems to be a lot of cases of pedal confusion in Tesla’s. Do they have strangely positioned pedals or something?

Nope, just a bit better acceleration than others

Tesla is the only car company under so much scrutiny, despite it pretty much always being the fault of bad drivers, to need two sensor on the pedal to record if the driver pushed it or not leading up to an accident.