Consumer Reports magazine dinged the ratings of Tesla’s sedan and crossover because the electric car maker never followed through in adding a key safety feature.
But the lowered point total of the Model S sedan and Model X crossover by two may not last long. Tesla said Wednesday that it has started adding the missing feature, automatic emergency braking, to cars. Automatic emergency braking slows or stops a car without driver involvement if it senses a collision is imminent.
The magazine, whose ratings typically carry huge sway with the kind of well-heeled car buyers that Tesla is trying to attract, said that in lowering its ratings, the two Model S is no longer top rated in its ultraluxury sedan category. The Model X is now middle of the pack in its category.
The lowered ratings come a week after the filing of a lawsuit seeking class-action status in San Francisco that alleges that Tesla had promised to deliver automatic braking and collision avoidance to cars via over-the-air updates by December, but the updates never happened.
