Teslas reportedly being stopped from driving on the highway by police in Chinese megacity [Update]

Tesla owners are reporting being stopped from driving on the highway by the police over safety concerns in Guangzhou, China.

Right now, there’s a lot of discussion about Tesla and safety in the US following the very publicized fatal crash involving a Tesla Model S in Texas.

But the same buzz is also happening in China after a Tesla owner protested about an accident at the automaker’s booth at the Shanghai Motor Show.

At the same time, in Guangzhou, a report of a fatal accident involving a Tesla vehicle made the news (via Global News):

The traffic accident occurred in the north of Dongjiang Avenue, Zengcheng District, Guangzhou on April 13, according to a statement released by Zengcheng public security bureau on Wednesday. A car caught fire after colliding with the cement barrier on the right side of the road and another car, leading to one passenger dead, said the statement.

Now today, several Tesla owners are posting on social media that they are being stopped by the authorities from driving on the highway with their vehicles in the city:

The police appear to be blocking every Tesla vehicle from driving on the highway over safety concerns following the accident.

On its official Weibo account, Tesla made a statement that appears to be related to the situation:

This afternoon, we have proactively contacted the Zhengzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration and reported the relevant situation. In order to protect the rights and interests of consumers, we are willing to cooperate fully and provide the raw data of the vehicle half an hour before the incident to the third-party appraisal agency or the technology designated by the government. The regulatory authority or the consumer himself.

The situation is still developing, and we will update if we get more information.

Update: the police denied targeting only Tesla vehicles and said that the effort was more about traffic, but several Tesla owners still claim that they were specifically targeting Tesla owners with long lines of Tesla vehicles spotted at the traffic stops while other vehicles were let through.

Electrek’s Take

Let me get this straight. The police are preventing everyone who drives a vehicle from a specific brand to go on the highway because a vehicle from that brand was involved in an accident in the city?

That’s crazy.

Hopefully, it gets resolved quickly, because it seems like an overreaction for now, especially since we don’t have any indication about the vehicle being at fault in this particular accident.

If you have more information about the situation, don’t hesitate to reach out.