Michael Ward’s lawsuit states that he suffered fractures to his face, teeth and spine when Ngoc Phuong Anh Dinh’s Tesla crashed into the passenger side of his car at the intersection of Oregon 212 with Southeast Sunnyside Road. The suit says Ward was traveling with the flow of traffic and had the right-of-way. He is seeking $745,000.
The suit doesn’t list Tesla as a defendant and, notably, the electric car manufacturer says it still requires drivers using the driver-assistance feature of Autopilot or the less common feature of Full Self-Driving mode to keep their gaze toward the road and their hands on the steering wheel. Autopilot allows the car to steer itself on well-marked roads and comes standard in new Teslas. Full Self-Driving mode costs extra and can steer, accelerate and brake on a variety of roads.
Last week’s lawsuit only names Dinh as a defendant, claiming she was at fault in part for “unreasonably relying upon autonomous vehicle technology.”
Tesla, based in Austin, Texas, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. Dinh couldn’t be reached for comment.
The suit is one of four automated driving suits filed in Oregon and many more across the nation against Tesla so far, according to court records. The number is only expected to grow as self-driving technology is advertised as the future of driving by Tesla and other car manufacturers that also are equipping their vehicles with the feature.
In 2021, a Washington County man filed a $342,000 lawsuit against a Tesla driver and the car maker after the Tesla driver claimed the car suddenly switched to “automatic drive mode” and operated “erratically” before slamming into the man on U.S. 26 near the Murray Boulevard exit in Beaverton. The suit was later settled in 2023 for an undisclosed amount, but a lawyer for the man said the Tesla driver’s insurance company disposed of or lost the wrecked vehicle before anyone could analyze it to definitively say what had happened.
Also in 2021, a former Portland resident who represented himself filed a $250,000 lawsuit against Tesla after experiencing “buggy behavior” in his Model S. He believes those glitches led to his car’s Autopilot mode misreading road conditions by suddenly making a 180-degree turn and slamming into a barrier after it started to hydroplane on a patch of standing water on the highway. Ranjan Lamichhane told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he dropped his pursuit of damages after Tesla booted his lawsuit out of federal court, sent him into arbitration and he felt out-powered.
“Owning a Tesla,” Lamichhane said, has caused him “immense discomfort, pain and suffering.” He told the news organization he now drives a Subaru.
The Oregonian/OregonLive also found a fourth lawsuit, this one filed by a Beaverton man who said in April 2024 his Tesla Model 3 was in Full Self Driving mode when it failed to recognize a curb at the Walker Road Fred Meyer and drove the side of one of its wheels into it, ruining it. Ameeruddin Shaik sued for the cost of a new wheel — $713 — plus $6,000, the extra amount that he says Tesla charged for the self-driving feature when he bought the used car from the company.
“I was like ‘I’m not paying $700 for what the car did,’” said Shaik, explaining the impetus for his small claims suit.
But court records show that although Washington County Pro Tem Judge Benjamin Knaupp ordered Tesla to pay for a replacement wheel, he refused to make Tesla refund Shaik the self-driving mode costs. Shaik said he’d argued Tesla had committed deceptive business practices because its Full Self-Driving mode doesn’t work as promised, but the judge said he needed to have arranged for an expert witness to testify and that part of his case fizzled on the spot.
Shaik, a believer in new technology, said he doesn’t think the technology is safe and ready for widespread use.
“I don’t hate Tesla,” Shaik said. “I don’t hate their CEO. I want them to be successful. I want FSD to work. … I hope one day it does work. But from the looks of it, it’s not happening any time soon.”
It’s unclear how many cars in Oregon have self-driving features. The state doesn’t keep track, nor does it count how many were in some form of autonomous mode when they crashed, said Chris Crabb, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Teslas with Full Self-Driving features are considered Level 2 on a five-level scale of autonomous vehicles and are legal in Oregon, Crabb said. The next tier of self-driving vehicles, Level 3, haven’t been approved in any states but California and Nevada.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is probing four crashes involving Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature. At least two deaths have been associated with cars operating in Full Self Driving, including that of a 28-year-old Seattle-area motorcyclist who was struck by a Model S in April while the driver said he was looking at his cellphone.
The federal agency’s scrutiny of Full Self Driving is on top of ongoing queries into crashes and at least eight deaths nationwide that were linked to Autopilot on roads where it shouldn’t have been enabled, as reported by a 2023 Washington Post investigation.
Ward’s lawsuit filed last week in Clackamas County Circuit Court says that the 2021 Tesla that struck his 2021 Hyundai was traveling rapidly when it ignored the stop sign in the predawn darkness of Nov. 25, 2023, the day after Thanksgiving, at about 5:30 a.m. The impact propelled Ward’s Hyundai across the center median lane and oncoming traffic, and it came to a rest next to the sidewalk.
Ward’s attorney, Kristi Gifford, said Ward’s Hyundai was totaled and from the looks of it, the Tesla was, too. Ward was taken by ambulance to OHSU Hospital. His suit seeks $100,000 in past and future medical bills, $40,000 in lost income, $5,000 in property he lost in the car and $600,000 for his pain and suffering.
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