As reported earlier this week, a man in Germany was given a fine as well as having his drivers license suspended after crashing his Tesla Model 3 while trying to select the automatic mode for its windshield wipers. Since the incident, Germany has ruled Tesla’s wiper control through its touchscreen illegal.
However, this isn’t the first wrench Germany has thrown in Tesla’s plans. Last month, the Germany banned Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving label dubbing it ‘misleading.’
Unlike most vehicles that have wiper control through a stalk attached to the steering wheel, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles use Autopilot cameras to detect the rainfall and automatically adjust the speed of the wipers considering the strength of the downpour.
Should the driver want to manually adjust the speed, it must be done through the center touchscreen as the German driving was trying to do when he lost control and wrecked his vehicle.
As previously stated the driver received a fine and a one-month driving suspension from the local district court. He then decided to fight the punishment which led the case to the Higher Regional Court, opening up a whole new can of worms for Tesla.
The OLG judge ruled “The touchscreen permanently installed in the vehicle of the Tesla brand is an electronic device within the meaning of Section 23 (1a) sentence 1 and 2 StVO, the operation of which the motor vehicle driver is only permitted under the conditions of this regulation It does not matter which purpose the driver pursues with the operation, and the setting of the functions required to operate the motor vehicle via the touchscreen (here: setting the wiper interval of the windshield wiper) is therefore only permitted if this is done with a short, Street, traffic, visibility and weather conditions adapted to the view of the screen while at the same time looking away from the traffic is connected”