Tesla (TSLA) is found liable in fatal Autopilot crash, has to pay up to $243 million (updated)
Tesla has lost its Autopilot fatal crash wrongful death case in Florida as a jury says the automaker has to pay the victims up to $243 million.
This is a significant blow to Tesla – although it will likely be appealed.
Update: This article has been updated to better explain the amount that Tesla has to pay.
We reported earlier today on the almost month-long trial’s conclusion and the plaintiffs’ request for $345 million in damages. Advertisement - scroll for more content
Now, the jury has returned its verdict, finding Tesla partially liable (33%) for the crash and awarding the plaintiffs $129 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.
It amounts to $329 million, slightly less than they requested, and Tesla only has to pay 33% of the compensatory damages since it has been found 33% liable for the crash, and the punitive damages are going to be capped at 3x the amount of compensatory damages, which is $200 million.
Nonetheless, it’s still a significant blow to Tesla and a major win for those who suffered crashes related to Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
Brett Schreiber of Singleton Schreiber, lead attorney for the plaintiffs in this case, commented on the results:
Tesla designed autopilot only for controlled access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere, alongside Elon Musk telling the world Autopilot drove better than humans. Tesla’s lies turned our roads into test tracks for their fundamentally flawed technology, putting everyday Americans like Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo in harm’s way. Today’s verdict represents justice for Naibel’s tragic death and Dillon’s lifelong injuries, holding Tesla and Musk accountable for propping up the company’s trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives.
The case is particularly impactful because it’s the first wrongful death case involving Tesla’s ADAS systems (Autopilot and Full Self-Driving) to reach trial.
In recent months, Tesla settled two similar cases for undisclosed amounts, but it wouldn’t or couldn’t settle in this one.
In the case of Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo, Tesla is being found partially liable for having misled customers into thinking Autopilot could do more than it actually could.
George McGee was driving his Model S on Autopilot in Key Largo in April 2019 when he dropped his phone and looked down to pick it up when the car blew past a stop sign at a T intersection, and crashed into a parked Chevrolet Tahoe.
22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo were standing next to the parked Tahoe. Benavides died and Angulo was seriously injured.
The police charged McGee with reckless driving, but the families of the victims sued both McGee and Tesla. McGee settled with the plaintiffs, but Tesla didn’t – leading to this trial.
Tesla attempted to put all the blame on the driver, like it usually do with crashes involving its ADAS system. This strategy has generally worked thanks to Tesla’s warnings about the driver being responsible.
A lawyer for the automaker said in his closing arguments:
Can it happen in any car? Of course it can. Does it happen in any car? Of course it does.
Considering that the driver admitted to not paying attention, one might think that it would be an easy case; however, McGee’s comments led to Tesla’s demise in this case.
The driver said about Autopilot:
My concept was it would assist me should I have a failure or should I miss something, should I make a mistake — that the car would be able to help me. And in that case, I do feel like it failed me.
The lawyers for the plaintiffs used the testimony of the driver, along with numerous statements made by Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, to demonstrate how Tesla owners can be misled into believing that Autopilot is more than just a regular driver-assist system.
Update: Tesla’s lawyers sent us the following comment about the verdict:
Today’s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla’s and the entire industry’s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology. We plan to appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial. Even though this jury found that the driver was overwhelmingly responsible for this tragic accident in 2019, the evidence has always shown that this driver was solely at fault because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator – which overrode Autopilot – as he rummaged for his dropped phone without his eyes on the road. To be clear, no car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash. This was never about Autopilot; it was a fiction concocted by plaintiffs’ lawyers blaming the car when the driver – from day one – admitted and accepted responsibility.
Now, I’m sure Tesla will appeal and prolong this process as long as possible, but this is still a groundbreaking verdict.
The important aspect to consider here is that the plaintiffs were able to get around Tesla blaming the driver, which is always its main defence against ADAS crashes, and attack directly Tesla’s well-known misleading approach to marketing Autopilot and FSD.
I expect the lawsuits to start pouring in now that this verdict has been released.
It also bodes well for the CA DMV case, which also directly attacks Tesla’s misleading presentation of Autopilot and FSD.
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