Chinese Woman Sues Tesla for Faulty Brakes, Now Owes Company $23,000

Tesla has won a defamation lawsuit against Chinese citizen Zhang Yazhou, who was a passenger in a Tesla Model 3 in February 2021. The car crashed, according to the woman, due to faulty brakes, and her mother and father were forced to spend four days in the hospital.

The woman was in the passenger seat at the time of the accident, while her father, who was driving the car, “ended up in the hospital” after the accident. Yazhou initially held public protests against Tesla, for which she was even detained for several days by the police, and then went to court to get compensation from the company.

The court, as reported by the Associated Press, instead sided with Elon Musk’s company and upheld the automaker’s demand for defamation damages, with Zhou herself now having to pay Tesla $23,000. Note that the automaker had initially sought about $684,000 in its countersuit.

In addition, the woman must issue a “public apology.” Zhan is still trying to challenge the outcome, but Tesla, under mounting pressure, released telemetry data from her car, which apparently showed that the brakes were working properly.

Tesla also sued “at least six bloggers and two Chinese media outlets” who published critical material about the company.