They Blame Autosteer After Losing Four Family Members in a Tesla Accident | Carscoops

      A family tragedy on Idaho’s Highway 33 has resulted in a lawsuit alleging that Tesla’s safety features failed to perform as promised in a crash involving a 2022 Model X.

      On the evening of September 1, 2023, a head-on collision occurred when a Tesla Model X crashed into a semi-truck, resulting in the deaths of a woman, her two children, her son-in-law, and their dog.

      The accident forced the closure of Highway 33 for about eight hours while authorities conducted their investigation. Now, a family member who was not in the car that night is suing Tesla, claiming the lane-keeping technology did not function properly.

      Nathan Blaine, the survivor, whose wife Jennifer Blaine was driving the Model X at the time of the incident, lost his daughter, son, son-in-law, and the family pet, Peaches. The semi-truck driver was unharmed, with police indicating that the Model X had crossed into oncoming traffic, causing the collision.

      Nathan Blaine attributes blame to Tesla, asserting in the lawsuit that the Model X was “unreasonably dangerous and defective” due to what he considers a flawed Autopilot and lane-keeping system.

      The lawsuit states that Tesla did not provide the 2022 Model X with the driver assistance features that were “reasonably available” for the model year, which were designed to help maintain the vehicle's lane position.

      Particularly, the lawsuit points to shortcomings in the Lane Departure Avoidance and Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance systems, both of which claim to apply corrective steering or actively guide the vehicle back on course when a collision risk is detected. The plaintiff contends that these systems failed to act before the Model X crossed the center line and hit the semi-truck.

      The 33-page lawsuit also critiques Tesla’s Autosteer feature, which is marketed as effectively keeping the Model X in its lane. The filing indicates that Autosteer did not function as advertised, failing to avert the deadly accident.

      Lynn Shumway, an attorney for the plaintiffs, remarked, “Tesla has accomplished many good things in my view, but they fell short in this instance. The technology has great potential, but Tesla's implementation is lacking.”

      Importantly, the lawsuit does not reference crash data, which could be a significant factor in their case. There have been previous Tesla crashes that were later attributed to driver errors. Regardless of what transpired in this instance, legal representatives will likely rely heavily on steering input data to support their argument, which should clarify whether the driver exerted any significant force on the steering wheel just before the crash.