Lifestyle
Tesla owner involved in >$100K legal battle as parking garage blames ‘Autopilot’ for Model 3 crash
A Tesla owner has found himself in the middle of a battle worth over $100,000 in property damages after his Model 3 Performance crashed while being driven out of a valet parking garage. Despite being in the right and having the evidence to back up his claims, the Tesla owner has ended up in an uphill battle that could last for some time.
From Routine to Horror
It was supposed to be a routine process. After having his Model 3 parked at a multi-story garage, the Tesla owner asked for his vehicle to be returned to him. A valet then went on to retrieve the Model 3 from its parking spot. A Teslacam video of the valet driving the vehicle showed that everything seemed normal, despite the parking garage employee driving a bit fast in such a cramped space.
Moments later, the Tesla owner was shocked as part of the parking garage’s second-floor walls came crashing into the sidewalk below. Images taken by the electric car owner after the incident revealed that a vehicle had been partly pushed through the parking garage’s brick walls. Fearing the worst, the Tesla driver ran up to check on the valet and his Model 3.
What he saw confirmed his fears. Smashed against two vehicles was his blue Tesla Model 3 Performance, its front end crushed as it collided with other parked cars.
Unintended “Autopilot” Acceleration
As the valet stumbled out of the Model 3, he promptly claimed that the Tesla suddenly engaged Autopilot and drove itself into the other vehicles. The valet was not joking.
While those inexperienced with Tesla’s tech may find it easy to blame Autopilot to avoid accountability when something terrible happens, those familiar with the driver-assist system know that Autopilot could not be engaged in a number of places. One of these is, of course, a multi-story parking garage. The Model 3 owner then knew something was amiss when the valet told him that “Autopilot” suddenly drove the Tesla into the other vehicles.
The parking garage company claimed innocence by stating that the incident was caused by “unintended acceleration” on the Model 3’s part. The company refused to budge, and the Tesla owner decided to fight all the way. Being familiar with how Tesla stores its vehicles’ data, the Model 3 owner decided to gather so much evidence that there will be no way his insurance company could lose the case.
The Hunt for Evidence
In cases such as these, which involve a party claiming unintended acceleration through “Autopilot,” it is always best to have a Tesla’s Event Data Recorder (EDR) report. The EDR is like the car’s black box, recording everything that has happened in the vehicle. Everything, from the driver’s weight, the vehicle’s speed, which pedals were pressed, and how far they are pressed, could all be determined in the EDR report. The Model 3 owner then contacted Tesla for help in retrieving his car’s records.
Much to his chagrin, Tesla refused, citing legal reasons because he lives outside of California. In a statement to YouTube channel Wham Baam Teslacam, the Model 3 owner remarked that he is not really sure why Tesla refused his request, though he thinks that if it were his lawyer that contacted the electric car maker, the results would have been different. Disappointed but not deterred, the Model 3 owner ended up hiring an EDR technician to retrieve his Tesla’s report. The move cost him $1,300.
The EDR report was damning. A look at the data from the Model 3 showed that the valet was not even wearing a seatbelt while operating the Tesla. The vehicle was also moving reasonably fast for a car being driven out of a multi-story parking garage. But even more importantly, the EDR showed that the valet had applied 100% pressure on the accelerator and 0% pressure on the brake pedal all the way up to the crash. With this data, the Model 3 owner figured that he could ultimately prove that the parking garage’s unintended acceleration claim was untrue.
Denying Evidence
But despite the mountain of evidence provided by the EDR report, the parking garage company decided to dig their heels in the sand and stand by their claim of unintended acceleration. The Model 3 owner’s insurance company has paid out on the multiple claims for the damages that resulted from the incident and have pledged to reimburse him after litigation is finished. But that process could take quite a while.
The incident resulted in $24,000 worth of repairs to the Model 3 Performance. Adding on the damages for the other vehicles involved in the incident and the actual damages to the multi-story building itself, the total cost of property damage from the crash is estimated to be far beyond $100,000.
Ultimately, the Tesla owner’s experience with the parking garage highlights two notable things. One, parking garages and valets should know that it’s tough to lie about what one does in a Tesla since data from the EDR would most definitely show the truth. And second, Tesla’s service has a lot of space for improvement, so owners who approach the company for help after such a harrowing, aggravating incident would not be turned away. An EDR request, especially one by an owner involved in an accident, is better off approved, after all.
Watch Wham Baam Teslacam‘s feature on the remarkable incident in the video below.
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Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”
Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group
The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.
Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation
Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.
Elon Musk
NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next
NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.
The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.
The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”
The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.
Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.
Elon Musk
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.
The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.
If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, @Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes.
An island of good food, good vibes & entertainment, all while Supercharging! https://t.co/zmbv6GfqKf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2025
But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.
Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”
Back to work
See you at Tesla Diner tomorrow pic.twitter.com/H3tTajrUbu
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) March 30, 2026
That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.
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