Ola scooter crashes due to alleged 'reverse' software bug
The name Ola Electric was resonating in the auto industry news even before its S1 and S1 Pro scooters rolled out. Call that good marketing if you will. But of late, the company has been basking in the limelight with outstanding sales numbers, while there's also been darker reason for the company garnering all that attention. Apart from the Ola scooter catching fire fiasco (a verdict is still pending on that case at this point), there have been a number of customer reports of the scooters malfunctioning and causing harm.
The most recent unfortunate matter involving an Ola Electric scooter was brought to light when LinkedIn user Pallav Maheshwari, claimed that his 65-year-old father and Jodhpur resident suffered serious injuries after the Ola e-scooter he was riding unexpectedly went into reverse mode at speed and crashed. This would not be the first time that Ola Electric customers have complained about the reverse mode acceleration glitch. Just last month, a Twitter user wrote of how his scooter switched to reverse mode and crashed in the end. In the same social media post, Maheshwari urged Ola to recall scooters or fix the glitch criticising the company for putting the safety of its customers in jeopardy with poorly tested products.
Last month, Balwant Singh, another Ola Electric customer from Guwahati had stirred up a storm when he claimed, through social media, that his son met with an accident due to fault in the scooter's regenerative braking. You can read about that incident here. There was a lot of to-and-fro with Ola on social media after that, which lead to both parties threatening to take legal action against each other.
Earlier in March, an Ola scooter in Pune was infamously pictured ablaze, which ultimately led to a recall of 1,441 S1 Pro units of the same batch for some pre-emptive diagnostics and health checks.
Ola is yet to respond to the recent allegations in Jodhpur. We'll be sure to follow-up on the matter as things progress.