The video shows a woman in a T-shirt that says “Brakes don’t work” shouting similar accusations at a car show in Shanghai.
An unfortunate customer who invaded the Tesla stand at the Shanghai car show in China, boarding a car in protest, creating a stir on social media and apologizing to the company, will be detained for five days, police said on Tuesday. from Shanghai.
Police said the woman and an accomplice woman – identified only by their last names, Zhang and Li – “caused chaos” at Monday’s trade show when they arrived at the Tesla display “to express their dissatisfaction over a dispute. with consumers ”.
Zhang was ordered to be detained for “disturbing public order,” while Li received a warning, police said.
Videos that went viral on Monday showed Zhang wearing a T-shirt with the words “Brakes on” and shouting similar accusations, while staff and security struggled to restore calm.
Late Tuesday, Tesla issued a statement apologizing for not addressing the customer’s complaint in a timely manner and said it would conduct a self-inspection of its services and operations in China.
Tesla sells about 30% of its cars in China, manufactured at the Shanghai plant. But he faced occasional criticism for issues such as battery fire complaints.
Monday’s incident prompted state broadcaster CCTV to call for an investigation into brake problems with Tesla cars, while China’s anti-graft surveillance dog weighed in with a comment saying such disputes should be resolved within the rule of law. .
“Individuals should not take extreme action, and businesses should not be arrogant and unreasonable,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said late Tuesday.
Tesla said Monday that the woman was the owner of a vehicle that had been involved in a collision earlier this year. He cited “speeding violations” for the accident, adding in a statement on social media that he had negotiated with her about the return of the car, but the talks stopped following a third inspection.
Zhang and Li could not be reached for comment.
The incident continued to attract the attention of social networks on Tuesday, representing two of the top 10 trend topics on the Weibo platform, similar to Twitter.
Tesla was brought under control in China last month when the military banned cars from entering its complexes, citing security concerns about the cameras in its vehicles, sources told Reuters.
This led founder Elon Musk to say that if Tesla used cameras to spy in China or anywhere, it would be closed. Earlier this month, Tesla said the cameras in its cars were not activated outside of North America.