Tesla Inc. was sued over a Maryland highway crash last year in which a Model 3’s airbags failed to deploy, leaving a college professor with brain damage.
Elon Musk, the company’s co-founder, has touted the Model 3 as the “safest car ever built” with the lowest risk of injury of any vehicle tested by government regulators.
The lawyers who filed the suit said they believe it’s the first case targeting the electric-car maker’s airbags.
“Despite Tesla advertising the Model 3 as the safest car ever made, our lawsuit alleges there are fundamental problems with the safety features of the car,” said attorney Ted Leopold of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, who represents the family that sued. “We look forward to reviewing Tesla’s design, development and testing of this car.”