Tesla drivers distracted by infotainment

This judgment is interesting! Yes, one after the other. It happened in spring 2019, but the topic is more relevant today than ever. A Tesla driver drives on the country road in the rain and poor visibility and wants that interval adjust his wiper. However, this is only possible via a submenu of the touchscreen of his Tesla Model 3 that can be reached by at least two clicks. As a result, he is distracted for a moment and strays from the street. It damages a traffic sign and several trees.

Driving license withdrawal and fine

The Karlsruhe District Court has now sentenced the driver to a € 200 fine and one month's driving license withdrawal. The OLG Karlsruhe confirmed this judgment in spring 2020. Both instances refer to paragraph 23 paragraph 1 of the Road Traffic Regulations, which regulates the handling of electronic devices in the car. This includes mobile devices such as smartphones but also permanently installed devices such as the touchscreen. Basically, you can take your eyes off the road if the road and visibility allow it, but this should only be done for a short time. According to the decision of the courts, the interval setting of the Tesla windshield wipers takes too long to still operate in a legally compliant manner. The judgment of both courts is now hotly debated, as more and more touchscreens are moving into the vehicle cockpit in the course of the increased digitization of electric cars and other motor vehicles. The risk of being distracted can therefore increase. Is using the touchscreen in the Tesla illegal?

Who is duty now?

After the verdict, many see the automaker's duty. You have to make sure that all significant functions are easily accessible at all times in adverse road and traffic conditions. Tesla has already made improvements here. The interval setting can now also be changed using a voice command. At the same time, many see drivers as a duty. Everyone knows about their smartphone or tablet: touchscreens require more visual attention than the good old remote control, the buttons of which have flesh and blood can still be operated safely in half-sleep. In a vehicle with a touchscreen, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the functions before driving. If in doubt, just stop to the right while driving, make the decisive settings and continue driving safely. This may take a bit more time, but it can save money and also seem to prevent you from losing your driver's license.

Why not a classic lever anymore?

However, we clearly see the obligation of the manufacturers here. What speaks against the good old dial directly on the lever for the windshield wiper? Back then everyone was excited about BMW's first iDrive. The innovative iDrive operating concept, which is heavily criticized due to its complexity, was later revised more and more and is probably the pioneer of almost all current concepts. Functions that are important for the journey, such as the setting of the windshield wiper, were never stored in the nested submenus, but could always be set using a manual button / lever. You should have left it at that, because the tiny wheel / lever certainly does not interfere with any interior design in the world. And finally ... The use of the windshield wiper of a Tesla can lead to points in this country and even lead to a driving ban in the event of an accident involving a hazard or property damage. But punishing users who properly operate a car that is legal under EU guidelines is definitely not the right way to go. 

Of course that had not been the case.

tuningblog.eu has a lot of other articles on the subject of auto & tuning in stock. Do you want to see them all? Just click HERE and look around. But also planned changes in the law, violations in road traffic, current regulations in the field of STVO or on the subject inspection we would like to inform you regularly. Everything you can find in the category "Test sites, laws, offenses, information". Following an excerpt of the last information:

Car purchase, HU, flyover? The day mark!

Car from abroad? The transfer mark / export mark!

Danger, harsh punishments: drunk driving

"Tuningblog.eu" - we keep you up to date on the subject of car tuning and car styling with our tuning magazine and we present you the latest tuned vehicles from all over the world every day. It's best to subscribe to ours Feed and will automatically be informed as soon as there is something new about this post, and of course also to all other contributions.