Elon Musk’s Tesla ordered to pay $243M in the Autopilot crash verdict

Tesla has been ordered to pay $243M after being found 33% liable for a 2019 Autopilot crash in Florida. The Jury holds Tesla partially liable for the 2019 Florida collision that killed one and injured another.

Tesla Inc. was hit with a $243M judgment on Friday after a federal jury in Miami found the automaker partially responsible for a 2019 fatal crash involving its Autopilot driver-assistance system.

Tesla ordered to pay $243M in the Autopilot crash verdict

Following a three-week trial, jurors deliberated for less than a day before finding Tesla 33% liable for the collision. The driver was found 67% liable. The panel awarded $42.5M in compensatory damages and $200M in punitive damages against the company.

The crash occurred in the Florida Keys when a Tesla Model S, with George McGee behind the wheel, failed to stop at a T intersection and collided with a parked Chevrolet Tahoe. The collision was fatal for Naibel Benavides Leon, while her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, sustained serious injuries.

“This verdict represents justice for Naibel’s tragic death and Dillon’s lifelong injuries,” Brett Schreiber, the lead attorney for the victims, said in a statement. “It holds Tesla and Musk accountable for propping up the company’s trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives.”

Tesla responded sharply, announcing plans to appeal the verdict. “Today’s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety,” the company said in a statement. “We plan to appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial.”

The trial found Tesla liable

The trial brought in Tesla engineers, external analysts, and the driver of the Model S, George McGee as witnesses. McGee claimed that he had activated Autopilot while driving home from work and was distracted at the time of the crash. He said he had dropped his phone while on hold with American Airlines and was looking for it when the vehicle left the road.

“I knew I was completely responsible for operating the car,” McGee told the jury. “But I expected Autopilot to assist me in the event I made a mistake. In that case, I do feel like it failed me.”

Tesla’s legal team countered that the accident was entirely McGee’s fault, calling the court’s attention to the driver’s distraction and history of speeding. They pointed out that Autopilot requires the driver’s attention and readiness to take control at all times, even referring to the language in the owner’s manual and warnings displayed in the vehicle.

Data extracted from the Tesla showed that McGee had overridden the car’s adaptive cruise control by pressing the accelerator to 17 miles per hour over the speed limit moments before the crash. Tesla maintained that Autopilot functioned as designed and no known defect contributed to the collision.

The $243M verdict delivers a blow to Tesla’s courtroom track record, which previously included two favorable verdicts in California and multiple confidential settlements.

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