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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Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
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