A Jury Found Tesla Partially Liable for Fatal 2019 Crash Involving the Brand's Autopilot Feature
A Florida jury ruled that Tesla was partly to blame for a fatal 2019 crash that killed a 22-year-old woman, according to .
Lawyers for the woman's family argued that Tesla's Autopilot system should have avoided the crash.
The case was the first fatal accident involving Autopilot to go to a jury; Tesla has settled several cases outside of court.
A Florida jury ruled that Tesla was partially responsible for a crash in 2019 that killed a 22-year-old woman and left her boyfriend seriously injured, according to The New York Times.
Specifically, the jury awarded $59 million in compensatory damages to the family of the woman and $70 million to her boyfriend. The jury also awarded $200 million in punitive damages. The jury found Tesla 33 percent to blame for the crash, and the company will be forced to pay one-third of the compensatory damages. It will also be forced to pay the entirety of the punitive damages.
According to the NYT report, the jury placed the rest of the blame on the driver, George Brian McGee, who previously settled with the families outside of court for an undisclosed amount of money.
The 19-year-old Naibel Benavides, who was a college student at the time, died on April 25, 2019, after being struck by a Tesla Model S sedan driven by George Brian McGee. McGee had dropped his phone while approaching a T-intersection with Tesla's Autopilot software activated. The NYT report states that he drove through the intersection at more than 50 mph, crashing into the legally parked SUV of Benavides and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, on the other side.
It was also reported that McGee's foot was on the accelerator pedal as he approached the intersection, thereby overriding a function of Autopilot that is capable of stopping for objects in the road. The lawyer representing Benavides' family said that data and video from the crash showed that the Autopilot system recognized the parked SUV and at least one pedestrian before the collision.
While this particular case was the first fatal accident involving Autopilot to go to a jury, Tesla has settled several cases outside of court. A 2023 study by the Washington Post found that between 2019 and 2023, Tesla's Autopilot system was involved in 736 crashes, 17 of which were fatal. At the time, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated during an interview that he found the name misleading. "I don't think that something should be called, for example, an Autopilot, when the fine print says you need to have your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road at all times," he said.
According to the NYT report, Tesla plans to appeal 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," the company said in a statement.
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