Munich Court Forces Tesla To Indemnify Customers For Imperfect Autopilot Technology

Tesla's autopilot technology causes customer losses. (photo: twitter @tesla)

JAKARTA – Tesla continues to face lawsuits because of its rudimentary autopilot technology. More recently, the Munich Court ordered Tesla to reimburse customers for most of the 112,000 euros (IDR 1.7 billion) for its Model X SUV due to problems with the Autopilot function.

According to Der Spiegel's report, on Sunday, July 17, a technical report showed the vehicle was unable to recognize obstacles such as construction site constrictions and sometimes applied the brakes unnecessarily.

The Munich court ruling stated that it could cause "grave danger" in the city center and lead to a collision.

According to Der Spiegel, Tesla's lawyers argued that the Autopilot system was not designed for city traffic. But according to the court, this system is also not feasible for drivers to manually enable and disable the feature in different settings as it will distract while driving.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment and declined to comment to Der Spiegel. The court was also not immediately available for comment by Reuters.

It was also previously reported that the United States Safety Regulators are investigating Tesla's Autopilot function after reports of 16 accidents, including seven injuries and one death.

Tesla says Autopilot allows vehicles to brake and steer automatically in lane, but doesn't make them capable of self-driving.

Musk said in March that Tesla would likely launch a test version of its new "Full Self-Driving" software in Europe later this year, but that it was subject to regulatory approval.

"It's quite difficult to do full self-driving in Europe," he told workers at the Berlin factory at the time. He also said a lot of work needs to be done to deal with the complicated driving situation in Europe where roads vary greatly from country to country.