Tesla plans to settle claims relating to a software update that temporarily caused reduced battery voltage in a handful of Model S units, according to court documents filed Wednesday in San Francisco’s U.S. District Court.
Reuters reports that Tesla has agreed to pay $1.5 million USD to settle on claims that the company released a software update temporarily reducing the max battery voltage in 1,743 Model S units, as seen in the court filings from Wednesday. The proposed claims, if settled upon in a U.S. court planned for December 9, would effectively pay out $625 to each owner involved in the update.
Former Tesla Engineer’s Lawsuit Against Company Could Become Landmark Case https://t.co/69zlWeyeIX
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) December 9, 2020
The lawsuit, which was originally filed in August 2019, alleged that an over-the-air (OTA) update reduced the maximum voltage that certain Model S units could be charged to. While updates following the OTA in question corrected the voltage of the vehicles to some extent, it wasn’t until March 2020 that a new OTA update was released, finally fixing the issue.
Lawyers for the Model S owners said that “voltage limitation was temporary, with a 10% reduction lasting about 3 months, and a smaller 7% reduction lasting another 7 months before the corrective update was released in March 2020.”
Tesla is currently also undergoing two lawsuits in California, one of which alleges that Tesla’s Autopilot was responsible for a fatal accident, and the other a class-action lawsuit claiming that Tesla unfairly raised solar installation prices after contracts had already been signed.
Update July 30, 2021: Elon Musk replied to Sawyer Merritt to say, “if we are wrong, we are wrong. In this case, we were.”
If we are wrong, we are wrong. In this case, we were.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2021
Tesla policy is never to give in to false claims, even if we would lose, and never to fight true claims, even if we would win.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2021
