TLDR: A Florida federal jury has found Tesla partly liable for a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, ordering the company to pay $329 million in damages. This verdict marks a significant legal setback for Tesla, as it’s the first time a U.S. jury has assigned the company partial liability and imposed nine-figure penalties for its driver-assist system’s use outside highways. The case highlights ongoing scrutiny of autonomous driving technology’s safety and marketing.
A federal jury in Miami, Florida, has delivered a landmark verdict, finding Tesla partially responsible for a fatal 2019 crash involving its Autopilot driver assistance system. The jury ordered Tesla to pay $329 million in damages to the family of the deceased victim, Naibel Benavides Leon, and an injured survivor, Dillon Angulo. This substantial award includes $129 million in compensatory damages and an additional $200 million in punitive damages, signaling a significant legal blow to the electric vehicle manufacturer.
The incident occurred in April 2019 in Key Largo, Florida, when a Tesla Model S, driven by George McGee with ‘Enhanced Autopilot’ engaged, sped through a stop sign and struck Benavides Leon, 22, who was killed, and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones. The couple was standing near their parked car stargazing when the collision happened. Plaintiffs argued that Tesla’s Autopilot software had dangerous defects and that the company misled customers about its safety benefits, allowing the system to be engaged on non-highway roads despite being engineered for controlled-access highways.
After a three-week trial, the eight-member jury assigned two-thirds of the blame to the driver, George McGee, and one-third of the liability to Tesla. This verdict is particularly notable as it is the first instance where a U.S. jury has assigned Tesla partial liability in an Autopilot-related fatal crash, with previous trials in other states resulting in zero damages for plaintiffs or settlements before trial. Attorney Brett Schreiber, representing the plaintiffs, stated that Tesla’s design choice to not restrict Autopilot use to controlled-access highways ‘turned our roads into test tracks.’
Tesla has pushed back against the jury’s decision, calling it ‘wrong’ and stating its intention to appeal, citing ‘substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial.’ The company maintains that the driver was ‘solely at fault’ for the 2019 crash, asserting he was speeding, had his foot on the accelerator overriding Autopilot, and was distracted while reaching for his phone. Tesla argued, ‘This was never about Autopilot,’ claiming the case was ‘a fiction concocted by plaintiffs’ lawyers blaming the car when the driver — from day one — admitted and accepted responsibility.’
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The verdict comes amid intensifying federal scrutiny of Tesla’s Autopilot system. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a formal defect investigation into Autopilot in 2021 following crashes with emergency vehicles and is separately probing whether Tesla’s 2023 over-the-air ‘recall remedy’ effectively addressed the problem. This ruling could potentially open the door for roughly a dozen similar U.S. lawsuits alleging Autopilot or Full Self-Driving contributed to fatal crashes, and it reverberates through the broader auto industry, impacting competitors like Waymo and Cruise who also face safety probes for their autonomous driving technologies. Following the verdict, Tesla shares fell 1.5% on August 1.
