There are times when filing a lawsuit stops you cold. One of them is the picture of a nervous 59-year-old woman asking Tesla staff to accompany her in a car she had never driven before, only to be turned down. Alemzewd Lawgalet, a federal employee of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, entered an Arlington, Virginia, Tesla store with the intention of taking a Model Y test drive. She left with injuries, a lawsuit, and a story that, for good reason, has since gone viral in the auto industry.
The actual incident happened on September 21, 2024. According to Lawgalet, she stated right away that she had never driven an electric car. According to reports, she requested that a Tesla representative go with her on the drive. The request was turned down. Rather, she claims that staff members informed her that EVs function similarly to gas-powered vehicles; anyone who has driven an EV will attest to the fact that this assertion is not totally true and omits some important details.
The events that followed happened swiftly. Lawgalet was completely unprepared for the car’s sudden slowdown when she removed her foot from the accelerator while driving at highway speed on Interstate 395. That’s regenerative braking, which is a common feature in electric cars. When the driver releases the pedal, kinetic energy is redirected back into the battery.
The abrupt deceleration seemed to indicate that something had gone wrong with the car to someone who was expecting it to coast, as a gas vehicle would. She made the decision to leave the test drive and return. The situation worsened while driving away from a red light on the way back. Her complaint stated that the vehicle “lurched forward at an extreme speed and horsepower compared to the force placed on the accelerator.” She became uncontrollable. The Model Y passed through a hair salon’s front door. The salon caught fire.
The lawsuit claims that prior to the drive, Tesla employees put the car in “Insane” mode, which maximizes acceleration and, in the case of that specific Model Y, allowed it to reach 60 miles per hour in 3.3 seconds. Lawgalet claims she was never informed of the car’s acceleration mode, never shown how to recognize it on the display, and never offered the choice to switch it. Naturally, a court must decide whether that qualifies as negligence. However, it’s difficult to avoid feeling that there was a flaw in the typical test-drive procedure when you look at that series of events.
Lawgalet is requesting $350,000 in punitive damages in addition to more than $10 million in compensatory damages. Tesla is named in the lawsuit along with two anonymous representatives who dealt with her that day, only identified as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. According to the complaint, Tesla’s actions are “reckless” and exhibit “conscious disregard for the health and safety of others.” Tesla has not addressed the accusations in public.
This case might never go to trial. Liability is divided, settlements take place, and the particulars of a single test drive in 2024 might never be fully discussed in court. However, the lawsuit brings up issues that extend beyond a single incident. What does a business owe someone who has made it clear that they don’t know how to use the product they are going to use? Who is in charge of ensuring that the driver is aware that a car can perform exceptionally well before it leaves the lot?
Millions of Tesla cars have been sold, and the great majority of test drives go smoothly. It’s important to recognize that. However, this case will probably lead to some awkward discussions about how automakers, not just Tesla, train new drivers on vehicles that behave differently from what most people have spent their entire lives learning to drive. There is a perception that the entire auto industry has been sluggish to address this as more than a small onboarding issue. It may be much more serious than that, according to Lawgalet’s lawsuit.
