After successful defenses during two other trials involving Autopilot-related crashes, Tesla Motors was found partially liable in a 2019 incident that fatally killed one person and seriously injured another. In Miami federal court yesterday, a jury deliberated for mere hours before awarding $243 million to the victims’ families.
Tesla is no stranger to litigation. After all, there’s a dedicated Wikipedia page covering the EV automaker’s extensive list of past and current lawsuits. Following the Miami ruling, however, that archive is growing.
The jury decision is compelling on multiple levels. Not only is the award a significant amount, but it also suggests that Tesla is not completely absolved from whatever its vehicle technology does or doesn’t do, regardless of driver involvement. Bloomberg reports:
A jury in Miami federal court found Friday that Tesla was 33% to blame for the collision. A Tesla Model S ran a stop sign at a T intersection in the Florida Keys and rammed into the couple’s parked Chevrolet Tahoe while they were standing next to it.
Jurors issued their verdict after less than a day of deliberations following a three-week trial. The jury determined that the Tesla S driver was primarily responsible for the crash and that Tesla should pay $42.5 million to compensate the victims for their losses. The panel also ordered Tesla to pay $200 million in punitive damages, but the company said it expects that figure to be reduced by the court.
The driver of the Model S was also at fault, and acknowledged as much. According to Bloomberg, the man told the court that he had engaged Autopilot while commuting. During that time, he dropped his cellphone while on a call and attempted to retrieve it. When he realized the vehicle had left the roadway, he “jammed on the brakes.” By then, it was too late.
In a separate lawsuit, Bloomberg reports that he reached a “confidential settlement” with the family of the woman who was killed. During this trial, the man testified that he gave Autopilot too much credit with regard to driver assistance. As recounted by the Associated Press, the driver said:
“I trusted the technology too much…I believed that if the car saw something in front of it, it would provide a warning and apply the brakes.”
Because of his admitted negligence, Tesla pins the blame entirely on the driver. The victims’ families said otherwise, accusing the automaker of withholding evidence. Per the AP:
The case also included startling charges by lawyers for the [families]…They claimed Tesla either hid or lost key evidence, including data and video recorded seconds before the accident. Tesla said it made a mistake after being shown the evidence and honestly hadn’t thought it was there…
Tesla has previously faced criticism that it is slow to cough up crucial data by relatives of other victims in Tesla crashes, accusations that the car company has denied. In this case, the plaintiffs showed Tesla had the evidence all along, despite its repeated denials, by hiring a forensic data expert who dug it up.
Additionally, the plaintiffs’ attorney said the Autopilot name itself is deceiving and leads drivers to believe the technology is more capable than it really is. Which is exactly why the driver thought searching for his lost phone wasn’t a big deal.
To its credit, Tesla’s ADAS and other safety technology have improved since the 2019 crash. Yet Tesla remains in the hot seat with NHTSA. The federal agency has opened several investigations against the company, including its self-driving claims and its remote car control feature. These regulatory probes cover millions of vehicles. Tesla plans to appeal the Miami judgment, of course. From Bloomberg:
“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,” Tesla said in a statement. “We plan to appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial.”
Should Tesla lose its appeal, the automaker doesn’t believe it will actually pay the amount awarded due to previous agreements. The AP reports that the families feel otherwise:
Even if that fails, the company says it will end up paying far less than what the jury decided because of a pre-trial agreement that limits punitive damages to three times Tesla’s compensatory damages. Translation: $172 million, not $243 million. But the plaintiff says their deal was based on a multiple of all compensatory damages, not just Tesla’s, and the figure the jury awarded is the one the company will have to pay.
Money isn’t something Tesla or its CEO is particularly short of these days. If anything were to put a definitive dent in Tesla’s cash pile, however, it could be the failure to regain public trust. Its valuation is based, in large part, on its ability to usher in a new era of driverless cars (e.g., Robotaxi). This is just another concern to mount on top of the federal investigations, lack of transparency, and months-long sales slump.
Top image: Tesla
So tesla can’t handle a cell phone drop much less the sleep your way to work advertised at the start?
Con Descending
Tesla claims in fine print that you need to keep your eyes on the road at all times and take over at a moments notice if the system fails to recognize a hazard – like a fire truck or a stop sign or a red light or a tunnel painted on a canyon wall by a coyote…
And then, in the same breath, claim that the system is miraculous and can drive you everywhere without help and it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. And then with a wink and a nod tell you that the other verbiage is just some legal technicalities and they have to say that to make their lawyers happy – but really the system can totally drive the car all by itself and everything is great so don’t worry.
And their high priced lawyers think that’s good enough.
Tesla deserves to lose all of these lawsuits and the damages need to be excessive so that it hurts. And the NHTSA needs to enforce meaningful rules for public safety and take action.
And the driver of the car that caused the crash absolutely needs to spend a couple of decades behind bars because THAT would be a deterrent too.
“a 2019 incident that fatally killed one person”
Not just killed, but fatally killed.
Brought to you by the department of redundancy.
“$243 million to the victims’ families.”
That’s a HELL of a lot of money, enough for a whole Walmart of victims.
The victims didn’t agree to be part of Musk’s public beta testing, where life and death monitoring is done by an untrained car buyer who has been deceived as to the capabilities of said system by company messaging and the words of it’s only spokesperson. This particular user had failed to do his beta tester job as instructed, and had numerous strikes, but was still permitted to be use the software, despite these safety critical incidents where he failed to be attentive. Tesla, however, continued to allow it’s use.
This brings us back to who is responsible for innocent bystanders being impacted, who didn’t agree to a Tesla beta tester disclaimer. They had no choice. The untrained user did what he had so confidently been told the car was capable of, driving itself. And Tesla permitted him to continue to operate the vehicle in this manner, despite him not following the instructions of being attentive at all times. By re-activating FSD each time he struck out, they gave permission to him to continue as he had done. Tesla absolutely holds responsibility here. Not all of it, but a big chunk.
My comment was not decrying the decision only the amount. That’s a LOT of money for a single death.
Since the majority is punitive and designed to discourage the company from bad actions, think of it as .02% of Tesla’s market cap. Proportionally, it would be a fine of $4800 for somebody with the median net worth. $4800 is awfully light for being even partially responsible for killing somebody.
Its also hundreds of times a typical lifetime earning potential which leaves a whole lot in someone’s pocket even after court costs. Which sounds like a big incentive for the unscrupulous to make sure unloved or inconvenient relatives are killed by a passing Tesla. People do it for insurance and inheritance, why not for a settlement?
I’d prefer $243 Billion. That might end the second biggest con in history.
Me too as long as I can get a taste of it.
Sure some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.
I appreciate that. I feel exactly that same. 🙂
In our litigation happy society it was really only a matter of time until one of these stuck, and that could open the floodgates against Tesla and others. Plus we’re just going to see more and more accidents with Level 2 systems as they become more commonplace. You don’t have to spend much time on any given public road to see that people can’t put their phone downs even when driving totally manual cars, much less semi autonomous ones. Honestly I think there is a reality where autonomous driving can actually be sued out of existence if manufacturers have to shoulder liability. The alternate reality, which I can’t decide is more or less likely given the current state of the courts, is that eventually the Supreme Court rules it just isn’t fair to poor little multi-billion dollar companies, sorry, people, to get picked on by being sued for things their products and the people that use them do and broad immunity is then the name of the game. The Peacemaker mentality, make cars “safer” no matter how many men, women and children you have to kill to do so.
If we were going to do anything about autonmous vehicles it would have been done years ago when Tesla started calling it Autopilot and Full Self Driving. In the end the laws and courts will side with the big companies.
Good! Let’s hope we see more litigation wins like this. The public did not agree to be beta-testers for Tesla and these other corps for “self-driving.”