California court patches lawsuit on Tesla for overcharging insurance premiums

Tesla should face a lawsuit for overcharging car users for their insurance premiums for “false” crash warnings instead of actual driving behavior, rules a California court judge on Friday.

Oakland-based Judge Brad Seligman of Alameda County Superior Court agreed to dismiss a breach of contract claim from the plaintiff Ricky Stephens, who resides in Illinois, and received a chance to amend it.

Stephens filed a lawsuit against Tesla on behalf of Tesla drivers from all of the states where Tesla provides its insurance service.

Tesla offers insurance using real-time driver behavior. It covers Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y owners in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

The term “real-time” relates to the real-time data to calculate potential savings on your premium based on a personalized Safety Score. The higher your safety score, the more the user can save on Tesla insurance.

However, the safety score uses data assessment from driver behavior such as hard braking, aggressive turning, and “Forward collision warning alerts”.

The plaintiff’s complaint mentioned that their vehicles are showing random Forward Collision Warnings without any danger in sight. This is wide causing is greatly affecting their safety score and increasing their insurance premiums.

However, Tesla denied this complaint at the court and asked Judge Seligman to dismiss the lawsuit, which he denied.

Meanwhile, Stephens blamed Tesla for having big faults in its vehicles and causing massive problems for its users. He said in a court filing that Tesla should advertise its offering accurately and court needs to ensure that such things do not happen again.

The first hearing on this case is scheduled for January 2024.

(source)