Hyundai Motor Blames Driver
Another owner of Hyundai Motor’s Genesis G80 model has claimed that his car accelerated suddenly and caused an accident. Hyundai Motor did not acknowledge that it was a sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) case, saying that it was the driver’s personal fault.
The owner, a resident in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, released a video on Aug. 18, showing his Genesis G80 suddenly roaring and accelerating and running forward at an underground parking lot. The G80 crashed into a car parked opposite it. The parked car was pushed back, hitting and damaging another car behind it.
Kim Jong-dae, the owner of the car, received it only four days ago. "I have 30 years of driving experience, but this was the first time in my life that a car accelerated suddenly and uncontrollably.” He added, “There is no guarantee that this will not happen again in the future.”
There were still traces of skid marks on the floor of the parking lot as the rear wheels continued to turn even though the car crashed into the opposite car. Experts who have checked CCTV and black box footage say that there is a high possibility of sudden acceleration.
"The rear tires kept spinning,” said Kim Pil-soo, chairman of the Automotive Sudden Acceleration Research Society. “Also, the brake light did not turn on immediately even though the driver changed the gear when moving backward. These facts make me assume that the car itself had problems. I think that these facts heighten the possibility of sudden acceleration.”
In response, Hyundai Motor says it was not a mechanical defect that caused sudden acceleration. As usual, it blamed the driver. The company refuted the claim that the brake light did not turn on when the driver stepped on the brake to move backward, saying that the vehicle was pushed back by reaction after the collision.
Since 2020, several more sudden acceleration incidents involving the G80 have been confirmed in addition to the latest case.