A Tesla owner has called for an explanation from the company founded by Elon Musk after his Model 3 vehicle allegedly got stuck at 83mph on a freeway last week.
Javier Rodriguez said in an interview with ABC7 News on Tuesday that he was on the 10 freeway in California last week when he started to notice “a weird scent” inside his Tesla Model 3.
Mr Rodriguez said his vehicle also become “hot” before its accelerator became stuck on 83mph, leaving him travelling at that speed for several minutes.
“I noticed that it started to get hot in the car and there started to be a weird scent coming,” said Mr Rodriguez, who was still able to apply breaks, however.
He added that he was “nervous” about braking while on the freeway because of the speeds people travel at, prompting him to reboot the Tesla.
“I was nervous that if I were to brake a whole lot that I wouldn’t be able to gain the speed again to keep up with traffic and get around cars,” Mr Rodriguez said. “I was nervous somebody was going to slam into me.”
That meant he was stuck travelling at 83mph before he was able to reboot the vehicle, according to the report. That happened after several minutes.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) helped Mr Rodriguez, of Irvine, get off the freeway about 84 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. His car was towed from the scene.
Tesla later told Mr Rodriguez they had diagnosed the problem as being an issue that caused the “power conversion system to shut off in order to protect on board components during drive,” and that issue was fixed, the report said.
He added: “I need more explanation, I’m on the freeway and this happens at 83 miles an hour. Everybody is trying to say, ‘Well we fixed it. We fixed it,’ but I need an explanation.”
The Independent has approached Tesla for comment.
