4:31 AM PDT · August 30, 2022 A Tesla Model 3 owner who filed a lawsuit against the automaker Friday alleging unintended braking is seeking class action status. The suit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said that a defect with Tesla’s Autopilot system can cause the vehicle to brake suddenly and could reduce its market value. The plaintiff’s law firm, Bursor & Fisher in Walnut Creek, California, said in the complaint that Tesla knowingly sold defective vehicles to customers. The firm seeks $5 million in damages on behalf of the plaintiff, Jose Alvarez Toledo of San Francisco, as well as more Tesla owners to join a proposed class action. According to the complaint, Alvarez Toledo experienced “the Sudden Unintended Braking Defect” several times since taking delivery of a new Tesla Model 3 in January 2021. Twice the vehicle “suddenly engaged the brakes and reduced his speed by about half.” The glitch that “suddenly and unexpectedly (causes the vehicle to) come to a stop in the middle of the road” should be covered by Tesla’s Basic Warranty, which handles maintenance and repairs for four years or 50,000 miles, the complaint said. The lawsuit alleges that Tesla knew about the defect from, “among other things, pre-production testing, consumer complaints, warranty data, dealership repair orders, and NHTSA investigations,” but has not recalled the vehicles or provided Alvarez Toledo with a repair or suitable replacement. “These costs are significant, and no reasonable consumer expects to incur such costs,” the complaint said. Techcrunch event