Model 3

Make
Tesla
Segment
Sedan

When you hand your car over to a valet, you're trusting them to take care of your pride and joy. But as we've seen before, this can sometimes end badly. Imagine how this owner must have felt when they watched their Tesla get wrecked by the valet driver they entrusted their car to. Dashcam footage shows how a valet driver of a Tesla Model 3 Performance crashed into a row of cars, almost sending them flying through the parking lot wall.

Knowing that Autopilot has been blamed for causing crashes involving Teslas in the past, the valet driver tried to cover his tracks and claimed that Autopilot took over the car, causing it to crash into the parked cars.

The owner didn't believe him and checked the Teslacam video that captured the accident. This didn't show if Autopilot was engaged, but the owner knew the valet driver was lying. To prove this, he contacted Tesla to request a copy of the Event Data Recorder, which acts like a black box that records everything that happens in the car, from how far the pedal was pressed to the g-forces on the car and which settings were activated.

Unfortunately, Tesla refused to give the owner access to the EDR because they live outside of California. Instead, the owner paid an EDR technician $1,300 to obtain the report, which proved the valet driver was at fault, not Autopilot.

According to the report, the valet driver wasn't even wearing a seatbelt and the car was being driven at 22 mph. At the time of the accident, it also showed that the valet driver applied the gas instead of the brake, so they simply applied the wrong pedal.

The owner's insurance company and the parking garage are still going through the litigation process. Despite the evidence showing the valet driver was at fault, the parking garage management refuses to take any responsibility and claims the crash was caused by "unintended acceleration." His carelessness caused over $100,000 worth of damage, including the $24,000 cost of repairs for the Tesla Model 3 Performance and the remaining costs for the other cars and building damage.