Tesla board pressures investors to approve Musk’s controversial pay plan
Tesla’s board has warned shareholders that CEO Elon Musk could resign if he votes against the company’s nearly $1 trillion compensation plan.
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Tesla Inc TSLA.O is being sued over a fatal crash in Wisconsin that killed all five occupants of a Model S, alleging a design flaw in which the sedan’s doors could not be opened and the passengers were trapped inside.
Jeffrey Bauer, 54, and Michelle Bauer, 55, of Crandon, Wisconsin, were passengers in a Model S when it left the road and struck a tree in the Madison, Wisconsin suburb of Verona on November 1, 2024. Both died the next day.
The suit filed Friday by the Bauers’ four children says their fate was sealed when the Model S’s lithium-ion battery pack caused the electronic door system to malfunction.
The children said Tesla knew from previous fires that something like this could happen, yet it “consciously departed from known and practicable safety practices.”
Tesla, based in Austin, Texas and headed by Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The company is also being sued by the families of two college students who died after being trapped in a car that burst into flames due to the door handle design during a Cybertruck crash outside San Francisco last November.
NHTSA was investigating Tesla’s door design
In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was investigating possible defects in some Tesla doors after reports that the handles could malfunction.
Bauer’s children said Model S back seat passengers like Michelle Bauer are especially vulnerable after a crash because they have to lift up the carpet to find a metal tab to escape, which is not intuitive.
A nearby homeowner called 911 and reported hearing screams coming from inside Bauer’s car, according to the complaint.
“Tesla’s design choices created a very foreseeable risk that the surviving occupants of the accident would remain trapped inside the burning vehicle,” the complaint says.
Other defendants include the estate of the driver of the car that Bauer’s children have accused of negligent driving. The lawsuit was filed in state court in Dane County.
The case is Bauer et al. v. Tesla et al., Wisconsin Circuit Court, Dane County, No. 2025CV003601.
Report by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing: Bill Berkrot
