Tesla ordered to pay $300 million to victims of Autopilot crash case
The ruling in Miami on Friday opens the door to other costly lawsuits and potentially striking a blow to Tesla's reputation for safety.
In 2019, a driver on a rural road in Florida was looking for a dropped mobile phone when he hit a young couple out gazing at the stars.
On Friday, the jury held that Tesla bore significant responsibility because its Autopilot technology failed and that not all the blame can be put on the driver.
The decision on the four-year case comes as Musk seeks to convince Americans his cars are safe enough to drive on their own, as he plans to roll out a driverless taxi service in several cities in the coming months.
Tesla's Autopilot technology has been significantly developed since the incident.
The majority of similar cases against Tesla have been dismissed or settled by the company to avoid the spotlight of a trial.
'This will open the floodgates,' said Miguel Custodio, a car crash lawyer not involved in the Tesla case. 'It will embolden a lot of people to come to court.'
The case also included charges by lawyers for the family of the victim, Naibel Benavides Leon, and for her injured boyfriend, Dillon Angulo.
They claimed Tesla either hid or lost key evidence, including data and video recorded seconds before the accident.
Tesla has previously faced criticism that it is slow to release crucial data by relatives of other victims in Tesla crashes, accusations that the car company has denied.
In this case, lawyers showed Tesla had the evidence all along, despite its repeated denials, by hiring a forensic data expert who dug it up.
Tesla said it made a mistake after being shown the evidence and said it believed the data was not there.
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