SOUTH JORDAN — The driver of a Tesla who plowed into a truck stopped at a South Jordan intersection in May while the car's auto-pilot was engaged filed a lawsuit against the high-tech automaker Wednesday alleging the accident was the result of a failure in the vehicle's technology.
Heather Lommatzsch, of Lehi, claims in her suit that "based on conversations with Tesla sales people" she understood that the Tesla's safety features "would ensure the vehicle would stop on its own in the event of an obstacle being present in the path of the Tesla Model S," but in her accident "these safety features failed to engage as advertised."
Lommatzsch also claims that she was told by a Tesla salesman that "she could drive in autopilot mode and just touch the steering wheel occasionally."
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that when she tried to apply the brakes, just moments before impacting a Unified Fire Authority maintenance vehicle that was stopped at an intersection in front of her on Bangerter Highway, the vehicle's brakes failed to engage.
In a written statement to the Deseret News, a Tesla spokeswoman said even when the electric powered vehicle's autopilot system is engaged, drivers should continue to stay in constant control of their car.
“When using Autopilot, drivers are continuously reminded of their responsibility to keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of the vehicle at all times," the spokeswoman said. "Tesla has always been clear that Autopilot doesn’t make the car impervious to all accidents.”
A report released May 11 by South Jordan police, following analysis conducted by Tesla engineers of data recovered from Lommatzsch's vehicle, indicates her hands were off the vehicle's steering wheel for the 80 seconds preceding the crash — data that lined up with statements she made to police that she was looking up the address of her destination on her cellphone before the crash occurred. The report also indicates that data showed the driver touched the brake pedal of the vehicle "fractions of a second prior to the crash."
"About 1 minute and 22 seconds before the crash, (Lommatzsch) re-enabled Autosteer and Cruise Control, and then, within two seconds, took her hands off the steering wheel again," the report states. "She did not touch the steering wheel for the next 80 seconds until the crash happened; this is consistent with her admission that she was looking at her phone at the time."
Lommatzsch suffered a broken foot and some abrasions from the Tesla's air bag deployment but, according to police, escaped relatively unscathed from the crash that demolished the front end of the Tesla. Investigators said the vehicle was traveling at 60 mph when it hit the Unified vehicle. She's seeking $300,000 in compensation for the injuries she suffered and other damage claims.
South Jordan police issued Lommatzsch a citation for "failure to keep proper lookout."
Shortly after the crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it was investigating the incident. A Deseret News email to the agency requesting a status report on that effort was not immediately responded to.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to weigh-in on the circumstances surrounding the crash just days after it happened. On May 14, Musk tweeted that it was "messed up that a Tesla crash resulting in a broken ankle is front page news and the ~40,000 people who died in US auto accidents alone in past year get almost no coverage. Minutes later, he tweeted: "What’s actually amazing about this accident is that a Model S hit a fire truck at 60 mph and the driver only broke an ankle. An impact at that speed usually results in severe injury or death."
In a March 30 company blog post, Tesla claimed its autopilot-enabled vehicles are involved in one automobile fatality every 320 million miles driven, versus one fatality for every 86 million miles driven in vehicles by all other manufacturers. If Tesla's safety record applied globally, the company said it would result in 900,000 fewer vehicle fatalities every year and that those driving Teslas equipped with autopilot hardware "are 3.7 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident."
Lommatzsch's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.