MIAMI – Federal ju umpire on Friday admitted that Tesla was partially responsible for a 2019 car accident that killed a pedestrian, and was severely injured when the car was in autopilot mode.
The ju judge awarded the plaintiff $200 million in punitive damages, as well as compensatory damages for pain and suffering.
The verdict is a blow to Tesla and CEO Elon Musk. They try to convince the public, government regulators and investors that their autonomous driving software is safe.
Eight ju umpires said Tesla had blamed a crash in the Florida Keys six years ago. The ju-deferee allocated Tesla a third of the blame and two thirds of the driver. The drivers were sued separately.
The ry judge found that the plaintiff had a deadline of $129 million due to pain and suffering, but the amount from Tesla could be smaller.
The verdict followed a three-week trial in Miami, and shed the spotlight on how Tesla and Musk sold driver assistance software.
The plaintiff’s lawyers argued that Tesla was being sold on Autopilot capabilities, leading the Model S sedan driver to take his eyes off when he approached the T-Intersection with Florida keys after sunset. Tesla was unable to stop at the intersection and was slammed into a parked SUV, where 20-year-old Nyberbena Vide Sleon stood next to the SUV and injured her boyfriend, Dillon Anglo. According to data cited at the trial, Tesla was travelling at 62 mph just before the crash.
Benavides Leon’s family and Angulo sued the driver and Tesla, claiming that the autopilot software warned the driver and that the vehicle should have braked before it crashed.
The ju apprentices reached the verdict after seven hours deliberation on Thursday afternoon and Friday.
The most unlawful death case will be settled or dismissed, but the case has been brought to trial as a major public test of Tesla’s safety records. Tesla claimed that the Model S driver was solely responsible for the crash as he reached for a cell phone that fell when it happened.
Driver George McGee testified during the trial that he believed the autopilot had failed him.
“My concept is that if I fail, or if I miss something, if I make a mistake, the car can help me, and in that case I feel it’s been causing me to fail,” he said.
The plaintiffs sued McGee separately, but the case was resolved.
Autopilot is standard on all Tesla vehicles and is a package of several driver assistance features. Tesla warns drivers in their online owner’s manual that autopilots need supervision and that the vehicle will not be fully autonomous.
However, the plaintiff said Tesla has dumped the driver into false sense of security, causing the driver to be distracted.
The plaintiffs sought $109 million in compensatory damages and $236 million in punitive damages from Tesla.
For years, Tesla and Mask have been promoting another package of autonomous driving software, fully automated driving, over the years, as a major advance in car safety. Musk says Tesla cars using the software are safer than human drivers, and he bets the company’s future on developing a safe, autonomous fleet of taxis.
But for many years, federal regulators in California and their counterparts have questioned the safety of Tesla’s systems. Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said there was a “critical safety gap” on autopilot, resulting in deaths, including 13 crashes that contributed to at least 467 crashes.
Plaintiff’s lawyer, Brett Schreiber, individually condemned the mask in his final summary to the ju judge on Thursday.
“It’s Tesla’s CEO who has built the hopes among consumers that autopilot can work beyond that limit,” he said.
He also said that Tesla’s driver assistive technology has not been proven, but he exaggerated it anyway.
“We’re here because Dillon Angulo and Neima Benavides were part of a beta test that we’ve never signed up for before,” he said.
Tesla’s lawyer Joel Smith told the ju decree in his final summary that it was a Model S driver, not vehicle software, to blame the crash.
“Is that happen in any car? Of course it is possible. Does it happen in any car? Of course it is,” he said.
Smith told the ju umpire that McGee had safely moved around the same intersection 30-40 times in advance.
“The only thing that changed was the driver’s actions,” he said.
Musk didn’t appear in Miami federal court in the three-week trial, but his name came out, including the ju-degree selection process.
David Ingram reported from San Francisco and Maria Pignero reported from Miami.
