Shillong, August 23: A widow has initiated legal action against Tesla in the US after her husband tragically lost his life in a 2020 accident involving a Model 3 vehicle.
As per IANS, Jyung Woo Hahn, aged 46, met his demise on March 12, 2022, when his Tesla malfunctioned, colliding with a tree and subsequently igniting in flames in New York.
Reports suggest that Hahn initially survived the crash but became trapped within the burning car. His widow, Jiyoung Yoon, has now filed a lawsuit in the US District Court, Southern District of New York, attributing Tesla’s design, manufacturing, distribution, and sale of the vehicle as responsible for Hahn’s fatal injuries and suffering due to its alleged “defective and unreasonably dangerous condition.”
Hahn was driving on the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Rockland County, New York, at the time of the accident. The lawsuit underscores the vehicle’s compromised condition as a causal factor in the tragedy.
The legal action seeks redress against Tesla for a range of damages, including economic losses, loss of earning capacity, emotional distress, pain, suffering, and punitive damages.
This lawsuit coincides with revelations that Tesla’s engineers reportedly acknowledged that the Autopilot system remained unchanged following a fatal 2016 crash in the US that resulted in a driver’s death. Testimonies from the engineers indicated that at the time of the 2016 incident, the Autopilot was not equipped to detect cross traffic or potential cross traffic.
As Tesla faces heightened scrutiny concerning its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features, the company also contends with an ongoing investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into claims made by CEO Elon Musk regarding self-driving capabilities.