Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) must pay $243 million in damages following a jury’s determination that the company shares responsibility for a deadly 2019 Autopilot-related crash in Florida, marking the automaker’s first courtroom loss in a wrongful death case involving its driver-assistance technology.
The Miami federal jury assigned 33% of the blame to Tesla for the April 2019 Key Largo crash that killed Naibel Benavides Leon and left her boyfriend Dillon Angulo with severe injuries. The remaining liability fell on the Tesla driver, who was not a defendant in the case.
The crash occurred when Tesla Model S driver George McGee, traveling at 62 mph with Autopilot engaged, ran through a stop sign and flashing red light while reaching for a dropped cellphone. His vehicle struck a parked Chevrolet Tahoe where the couple was standing, throwing Benavides Leon 75 feet to her death.
The jury awarded $129 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages. Tesla will pay approximately $42.6 million in compensatory damages based on its 33% liability, plus the full $200 million punitive award.
“Tesla designed Autopilot only for controlled access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere,” said Brett Schreiber, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. The lawyer accused Tesla of turning “our roads into test tracks for their fundamentally flawed technology.”
In a statement that the lawyers sent to Elektrek, Tesla denounced the verdict and announced plans to appeal. “Today’s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety,” the company said in a statement, calling the case “a fiction concocted by plaintiffs’ lawyers blaming the car when the driver – from day one – admitted and accepted responsibility.”
Key evidence included recovered video data from the Autopilot computer that Tesla initially claimed was deleted. The footage showed the vehicle detected the upcoming collision but failed to brake or warn the driver before shutting off moments before impact.
Related:
- Ex-Engineer Says Tesla Invented Crash Data for Autopilot
- Tesla Faces California License Suspension Over Autopilot Problems
- Tesla Ordered to Refund Lawyer $10,600 for Undelivered Self-Driving Feature
The case could encourage additional lawsuits against Tesla, which faces about a dozen similar pending cases involving Autopilot or its Full Self-Driving technology. The verdict comes as CEO Elon Musk seeks to convince investors that Tesla can lead in autonomous vehicle development and deploy robotaxis on public roads.
Tesla shares fell 1.8% Friday and are down 25% for the year. The company has settled previous Autopilot-related cases out of court but chose to fight this case at trial during three weeks of testimony in Miami federal court.
McGee, who was not a defendant in this case, testified he “trusted the technology too much” and believed the car would warn him of obstacles ahead.
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