Watch: Protestor At Shanghai Auto Show Climbs On Tesla, Screams “Brake Failure”, In Now-Viral Video

A protestor at the Auto Shanghai expo this week climbed on top of a Tesla Model 3 sedan and screamed in protest while wearing a t-shirt that said “The Brakes Don’t Work” and “Invisible Killer”.

Video of the incident has caught fire in China and ” hit a nerve in China, sending complaints about the company ricocheting across the Chinese internet,” according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The woman was eventually dragged away by security guards, but not after catching the attention of hundreds in the building – and millions more on the web. The hashtag of the incident was viewed by 150 million people on Weibo, WSJ reported. 

Her plight garnered sympathy online, with one user saying Tesla was “hoodwinking Chinese consumers” and others encouraging people to buy from competitors. Another user with 5 million followers shared their “litany of complaints” about other alleged glitches with their Tesla. 

In a statement, Tesla said the woman’s father was involved in a February accident where his Model 3 crashed into another vehicle. She had demanded a refund from the company, blaming the crash on a “technical problem”. Tesla said that her father had wrecked due to “excessive speed”. A woman who claimed to be the protestor wrote on a Weibo account that she would “seek justice through the legal system” and that the incident “exposed the true face behind Tesla’s vaunted brand”.

Recall, we highlighted another Tesla wreck that took place in Houston just days ago, though the brakes have not been determined to be an issue in that case. 

The woman was “detained for five days”, according to a local police statement provided by Bloomberg on Monday night. 

Even more interesting – as we continue to watch for signs of tumult between Elon Musk and the CCP – was the Global Times’ quick response to the incident, broadcasting it on its Twitter feed the day it happened:

Tesla expanded its investment in Chinese market during the stormy time of Trump administration-initiated trade war. Tesla and Chinese consumers reaching a win-win result is what most Chinese people want to see. https://t.co/iNTPANqugT

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) April 20, 2021