A large number of Tesla's autonomous vehicle owners were left without a way to use their car due to a malfunction in the manufacturer's app on Friday that actually prevented it from identifying the vehicle and operating it.
Although there are supposed to be mechanical mechanisms that can be used to bypass the app in case of disruption, the anger towards the company of Elon Musk - the richest man in the world - was fatal.
"I'm stuck for an hour from my house because I usually use my cell phone to start my car," tweeted one of the surfers.
Apparently the glitch was due to the crash of the server running the app, which had recently received a version update, and Musk was rescued to fend off criticism on social media and tweeted: "I apologize, we will take steps to make sure this does not happen again."
Although there is a "real" key (in the form of an e-card) and the cell phone can be turned into such a card in case of need without the app, it is possible that many car owners for one reason or another did not have access to these replacement mechanisms because they relied only on the app.
If that was not enough, according to some reports the server malfunction also prevented the car from starting at some users, so it is possible that some of the passengers were left helpless even in the face of the alternative mechanisms.
Some tweeted that they had to cancel plans and even called for rescue vehicles.
As far as is known the problem affected drivers indiscriminately, but the most prominent tweets were in North America and South Korea.
Musk eventually tweeted that the issue was resolved after "we apparently accidentally increased our network's traffic."