Thoughts from the Driver’s Seat | Nelson Law, LLC

Automobiles and Insurance: UK vs. US

admin — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 17:57:00 +0000

Last month, partner Mike Nelson, joined the PAVE (Partners for Automated Vehicle Education) virtual panel “Special Relationship: U.S. and U.K. Perspectives on AVs and Insurance”, for a conversation on AVs, insurance, and public policy both here and in the U.K. In this month’s Thoughts from the Drivers Seat, Mike summarizes the discussion and shares his thoughts on how data and transparency will play a role in determining risk transfer.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Firm, its clients, or any of its or their respective affiliates. This blog post is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.

My Rented Tesla Was in An Accident. Now What?

admin — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 18:00:17 +0000

Car accidents occur daily. That includes accidents in rental cars. But what happens when an EV is in an accident? How does the data captured by the car impact the insurance claim?

In the last Thoughts from the Drivers Seat, Partner Mike Nelson shared his experience with Autopilot while renting Tesla Model 3 from Hertz. In this week’s video, Mike expands on his rental car experience when he was involved in an accident. Was he able to recover the data? Watch the video to find out.

Cabin Cameras and Driver Monitoring: Privacy vs. Safety in AVs

admin — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 18:06:45 +0000

Somebody’s Still Watching You, With Improvements: Tesla’s In-Cabin Camera

About a year ago, Partner Mike Nelson shared his initial thoughts on Tesla’s interior cabin camera as a tool for monitoring driver engagement. At the time, Mike noted that the cabin camera was an improvement to Tesla’s prior monitoring system that relied largely on haptics, and brought Tesla in line with many other OEMs that already were monitoring driver engagement using cabin cameras. Today, having logged many more miles with the technology in place, Mike has noticed improvements that also have improved his opinion of Tesla’s safety features. Watch the video to see what he has to say, from the driver’s seat of his Model Y.

Data Privacy in Mobility: Managing Risk in a Connected World

admin — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 20:59:59 +0000

Is A Privacy Rights Dispute Rightly Venued in Private Arbitration? Tesla Thinks So.

In a recent post, we explored how the move by EV manufacturers away from the traditional dealership sales model is disrupting not only how we buy cars but also the way we litigate disputes related to them. To recap, by selling directly rather than through a dealership, EV manufacturers remain in “contractual privity” with their consumers, which allows them to enforce contractual language requiring consumers to bring disputes with the manufacturer in arbitration (a private forum) rather than in court (a very public forum).

Tesla’s order and purchase agreements, for example, both include provisions that require the consumer to arbitrate “any dispute between you and Tesla, Inc. and its affiliates” unless the consumer opts out of arbitration within thirty days of signing the agreement.

Excerpt from Tesla Order Agreement

As Mike Nelson notes in today’s video, many consumers probably do not even read this language, much less appreciate that they are giving up the right to have any dispute with Tesla heard in a public forum—whether that dispute relates to something predictable like vehicle performance or something less predictable like data privacy.

This particular issue has been brought to the forefront in a pending putative class action lawsuit filed by a Tesla owner named Henry Yeh, on behalf of himself and similarly situated owners, who alleges that Tesla violated the owners’ privacy rights by sharing video recordings and images captured by their cars—some while the car was parked and not in use—without the owners’ consent. Yeh v. Tesla, Inc., Case No. 23-cv-01704, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Consistent with its contractual language, Tesla sought to compel the claims to private arbitration on a non-class basis. Yeh subsequently filed an amended complaint adding his one-year-old child as a plaintiff, including the following allegations:

The amendment rendered Tesla’s motion to compel moot, at least for the time being, and the Court denied it without prejudice. But this motion practice and the case generally still raise important questions about how wide a net Tesla can cast with its arbitration provision.

In today’s video, Mike Nelson shares his thoughts on these questions and more, from the driver’s seat (and outside of) his Telsa Model Y. We’ll continue to watch the Yeh case and other developments related to the arbitrability of claims against EV manufacturers. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments below.

FSD Takes to the Back Roads at Highway Speeds

admin — Fri, 19 May 2023 18:14:47 +0000

In an exclusive interview with CNBC this past week, Elon Musk predicted that Tesla will have a “Chat GPT moment” within the next year when millions of cars “suddenly … will be able to drive themselves with no one.”

But millions of Teslas are already on the roads, and many are equipped with Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” beta technology that functionally allows the cars to “drive themselves.” Today, Partner Mike Nelson demonstrates how that technology works from the driver’s seat of his Model Y, even letting it navigate the back roads near his home at unchecked highway speeds. It succeeded—but is it safe? Watch the video, and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Brake Assist and AV Safety: Understanding Sudden Stops

admin — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:00:11 +0000

Whooooo Hit the Brakes?

The term “phantom braking” may conjure up images of ghosts and goblins, but it is hardly a seasonal phenomenon. It a technical sense, according to CMU Professor Phil Koopman as quoted by The Washington Post, phantom braking occurs when “the developers do not set the decision threshold properly for deciding when something is there versus a false alarm.” In a more basic sense, phantom braking is what happens when a car’s automated driving system suddenly and unexpectedly slams on the brakes because it incorrectly senses a collision hazard.

The term is almost exclusively used in relation to Tesla vehicles, with hundreds of Tesla drivers having reported phantom braking incidents. In February 2022, NHTSA opened an investigation into the problem, citing “354 complaints alleging unexpected brake activation in 2021-2022 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.” That investigation is ongoing.

The high incidence of phantom braking also has prompted at least two class action lawsuits against Tesla—the first, filed in California federal court last year, was voluntarily dismissed for unknown reasons; the second, filed in January, remains pending in North Carolina federal court. In the North Carolina case, Costello v. Tesla, plaintiffs allege:

The problem at hand is that Tesla is rushing these features to market when the technology is not yet ready and not yet safe. This rush and thus omission of safety is the crux of this case. Tesla’s Autopilot and AEB Systems have a defect that causes the Class Vehicles’ brakes to falsely engage randomly, unexpectedly, and often with great severity (the “Phantom Braking Defect”, “Sudden Unintended Braking Defect” or the “Defect”). The Sudden Unintended Braking Defect causes the Class Vehicles to detect non-existent obstacles, thereby automatically engaging the Class Vehicle’s brakes and causing the Class Vehicles to abruptly slow down or come to a complete stop, sometimes in the middle of traffic. Essentially, Tesla vehicles are now slamming on brakes in the middle of traffic due to Autopilot. Simply put, as a result of the Defect, the Autopilot and AEB systems at issue here are now a safety hazard rather than a beneficial safety feature.

Plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief to require Tesla to recall affected vehicles, replace defective transmissions, and reform its warranty to remove misleading information.

Watch the video to hear Partner Mike Nelson’s thoughts from the driver’s seat about this scary phenomenon—from his own (thankfully) mundane experiences to some more significant events on Florida and California highways.

FSD Beta Updates: What You Need to Know About Tesla’s Latest Features

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 21:21:00 +0000

To say Full Self-Driving Beta “has been in the news” would be a vast understatement. Tesla’s imprecisely-named driver assistance technology—as the website cautions, “currently enabled Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous”—has always received media attention, but between consumer class actions, legislative activity, Super Bowl commercials calling for regulators to ban it, and now a full-scale recall, FSD has received more than its usual coverage of late. Today, Mike Nelson tries to break it all down, from the driver’s seat of (what else?) his Tesla Model Y.

Autonomous Driving in Winter Conditions: Challenges and Progress

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:44:00 +0000

Let it snow! Let it snow!

A few weeks ago, Jalopnik published an article entitled “Video Shows Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ Absolutely Cannot Handle Snow.” The article links to video from a Detroit-based driver attempting to operate his Tesla in Full Self-Driving mode through a snowstorm, quickly revealing the system’s shortcomings in navigating inclement weather.

While FSD may not be ready for all conditions, Partner Mike Nelson says that EVs actually handle extremely well in the snow. The reason for this is simple: EVs are heavy, and their weight increases traction. As a point of comparison, for example, the Ford F-150 Lightning weighs somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 pounds more than its ICE version.

Check out the video to hear Mike’s full take on how EVs handle in the snow, coming to you from the driver’s seat of his Model Y (which weighs in at roughly 4,400 pounds) and the snowy backroads of Pennsylvania.

Tesla vs. Rivian: A Real-World Comparison of EV Features and Performance

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 16:08:07 +0000

Partner Mike Nelson got an early delivery from Santa this year – a shiny red Rivian pickup truck! Today, he shares some thoughts from the driver’s seats of both his Rivian and his Model Y, including how the two compare on delivery, performance, and swag.

Happy holidays!

A “Costcoesque Battery Choice” Revisited

admin — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 19:58:26 +0000

A few weeks ago in this post we observed that American consumers’ desire for bigger and bigger EV batteries may not be reflective of actual driving needs, nor conducive to advancing many of the objectives of electrification. This week, as partner Mike Nelson prepares to take delivery of a new Rivian truck, he walks us through his own “Costcoesque battery choice.” Did he opt for the Standard pack (projected 260+ mile range), Large pack (EPA estimated 314 mile range), or Max pack (projected 400+ mile range)? Watch the video to find out what he chose, and why.