In an unusual move, Consumer Reports has lowered the rating of the Tesla Model S and Model X because the automaker has not enabled the automatic emergency braking feature on both vehicles.
As the organization explains, previous versions of the Model S and Model X came equipped with an automatic emergency braking system but vehicles produced between October 2016 and now still don’t have the feature as the company is working on a software update. This has left certain owners without the promised safety feature for nearly six months.
Tesla expects to release a software update on Thursday but that isn’t soon enough to please Consumer Reports as the organization adds points to the ratings of vehicles that have automatic emergency braking as standard equipment. As a result, the rating of the Tesla Model S drops by two points from 87 to 85. This lowers the formally top-ranked model to third place in the ultra-luxury car category behind the Lexus LS and BMW 7-Series.
The Tesla Model X also suffers a two-point drop from 58 to 56. The crossover didn’t score very high to begin with but now it’s “near the bottom of the luxury midsized SUV category.”
Consumer Reports isn’t the only one to ding the automaker over the delayed software update as a recent lawsuit contends the company committed fraud by not delivering on promised safety features.
Photo Gallery
