Video shows a woman in a T-shirt saying ‘The brakes are not working’ shouting similar accusations at a Shanghai auto show.
A disgruntled customer who raided the Tesla booth at the Shanghai auto show in China by scrambling on a car in protest, causing uproar on social media and company apologies will be detained for five days, Shanghai police said Tuesday .
Police said the woman and a female accomplice – identified only by their surnames, Zhang and Li – “caused chaos” at the trade show on Monday when they arrived at the Tesla display “to express their displeasure over a consumer dispute.”
Zhang was ordered to be detained for “disturbances in public order,” while Li received a warning, police said.
Videos that went viral on Monday showed Zhang wearing a T-shirt that read “The brakes are not working” and shouted similar allegations as staff and security struggled to restore peace.
Late Tuesday, Tesla issued a statement apologizing for not handling the customer’s complaint in a timely manner and saying it would conduct a self-inspection of its service and operations in China.
Tesla sells about 30 percent of its cars in China, made at its Shanghai plant. But it has occasionally been criticized for such things as battery fire complaints.
Monday’s incident prompted state broadcaster CCTV to call for an investigation into reported braking problems in Tesla cars, while the Chinese anti-graft watchdog weighed in, commenting that such disputes should be resolved within the rule of law.
“Individuals should not take extreme measures, and companies should not be arrogant and unreasonable,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said late Tuesday.
Tesla said on Monday that the woman was a vehicle owner who had been involved in a collision earlier this year. It cited “speeding violations” before the crash and added in a statement on social media that it had negotiated with her to return the car, but talks had stalled after an inspection by a third party.
Zhang and Li could not be contacted for comment.
The incident continued to attract social media attention on Tuesday, accounting for two of the top 10 trending topics on the Twitter-esque Weibo platform.
Last month, Tesla came under control in China when the military banned its cars from accessing its complexes, citing concerns about the safety of cameras in its vehicles, sources told Reuters news agency.
That prompted founder Elon Musk to say that if Tesla used cameras to spy in China or anywhere, it would be shut down. Earlier this month, Tesla said cameras in its cars will not be triggered outside of North America.