German Court Suspends A Driver's License After Crashing While Accessing Tesla's Center Screen

A recent verdict from Germany will start a fascinating discussion. The Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe confirmed that a driver would have to be suspended from driving for a month. He was sentenced to that because he drove his Tesla Model 3 into an embankment and hit some trees after trying to adjust the windshield wiper speed on the touchscreen.

This driver, which did not have his identity revealed, suffered this accident on the evening of March 15, 2019. The first lawsuit he was subject to happened on August 22, 2019, and he was condemned to pay a €200 fine and got suspended from driving for one month. The 1 Rb 36 Ss 832/19 lawsuit if the final one, and it does not admit any appeal.

atc98092 - 8/3/2020 10:52:32 AM

+1 Boost

I'm the first to say that I don't care for every setting being on a touchscreen. But this driver was obviously not driving well. From everything I've read Tesla has an excellent voice control for practically everything found on the touch screen, and there's also a button on a stalk that can control wiper speed. So he did not need to be fiddling with the touchscreen at that time.

supermoto - 8/3/2020 2:52:50 PM

+1 Boost

You've got to love German driving laws, where someone can lose their license for not letting cars pass them when they are driving slowly in the fast lane.