Tesla has been ordered to pay $234 million after the company was found partly liable for a 2019 Autopilot crash in Florida. The jury held the EV automaker 33% liable in the 2019 collision that killed one and injured another.
Tesla was hit with the judgment on Friday after a federal jury in Miami found the company partially responsible for the fatal crash involving its Autopilot driver assistance system. After the three-week-long trials, jurors deliberated less than a day before finding the company 33% liable for the collision. However, the driver was found 67% liable. The panel awarded $42.5 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages against the company.
Tesla found partly liable by federal jurors
The crash occurred in the Florida Keys when a Tesla Model S, being driven by George McGee, failed to stop at a T intersection and collided with a parked Chevrolet Tahoe. The collision cost Naibel Benavides Leon her life, while her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, was seriously hurt.
“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 has responded to the verdict, announcing its plan 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 saw several parties, including Tesla engineers, external analysts, and the driver George McGee, called up as witnesses. McGee claimed that he had already 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 went off 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.”
Meanwhile, 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 stepping on 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.
