Tesla partly found blame for the crash of the deadly automated pilot
Florida’s jury found that Tesla is partly responsible for a 2019 crash, as a model sedan was killed using a pedestrian driving program and was seriously injured.
Prosecutors argued that the aid program, called Autopilot, should have alerted the driver and stimulated the brake before the accident.
Tesla maintained the driver, George McGi, a mistake and described the ruling as a “mistake” in a statement to the British Broadcasting Authority, while pledged to appeal. The result means that the company must pay up to 243 million dollars (189 million pounds) of punitive and compensation damage.
The referee represents a setback for Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, who described self -driving technology as important for the company’s future.
Tesla shares decreased after the news and were almost less than 2 % less when American markets were closed.
After the verdict, the prosecutors’ lawyers said that Mr. Musk had abused the capabilities of the Autopilot driver’s help program.
“Tesla was designed only for the highways accessible to the control, but she deliberately chose not to shorten the drivers from using it elsewhere, along with Elon Musk, he told Autopilot the world better than humans.”
Mr. Shrebar said that Tesla and Mr. Musk have long paid the company’s evaluation “self -noise at the expense of human life.”
He added: “Tesla’s lies turned our ways to testing its flawed technology mainly.”
A lawsuit was filed against the company by the Nappel Benefides Lyon family, 22, who was killed when the model was in the match in Florida Keys in 2019. Her boyfriend Delon Angelo suffered from life injuries and also participated in the lawsuit.
The court listened to the fact that the driver, Mr. McGoy, lost sight on the road when he dropped his phone approaching the intersection, causing his car to continue through it and collision with a parked SUV on the other side. The two victims were standing near.
Mr. McGEE, nor Autopilot did not hit the brake in time to prevent collapse.
After a three -week trial, the jury granted $ 329 million as total compensation, including $ 129 million of compensatory damage and 200 million dollars of punitive damage aimed at deterring Tesla from harmful behavior in the future.
Tesla will be responsible for paying a third of compensatory damage – 42.5 million dollars – and a total of $ 200 million of punitive damage, but according to the company, the punitive damage is likely to be specified in a lower amount.
“Today’s ruling is wrong and only works to restore the safety of cars and expose Tesla and the entire industry efforts to develop and implement life -saving technology,” Tesla said in a statement.
Tesla said that the evidence in the trial showed that the driver was only wrong because he was accelerating with his foot on the accelerator, who exceeded the automated pilot, while searching for his phone and not on the road.
“To be clear, there is no car in 2019, and nothing today would prevent this incident,” Tesla said. “This was never about the automated pilot; it was a imagination that was prepared by the lawyers of the prosecutors who blame the car when the driver – from the first day – confessed to acceptable responsibility.”
While there were other federal cases that included the Automated Pilot Award during fatal accidents, the Florida case, which reached its climax on Friday, was the first to go to the jury.
Last year, Tesla settled a lawsuit for the 2018 collision that killed an Apple engineer after the X collided with the highway while operating the company Autopilot for the company.
In 2023, a California jury found that Tesla was not wrong in a claim that the automated pilot had led to death.
In the trial, Mr. McGe said that his concept of Tesla is that he “will help me if I have a failure” or “made a mistake”, and that he felt that the program had failed.
Mr. McGe settled a separate lawsuit with the plaintiffs for an unveiled amount.
Tesla has long faced automatic pilot and self -driving technology, and critics praised the jury’s decision.
“Tesla is finally held accountable for her defective designs and significantly neglected engineering practices,” said Messi Kamings, a robot professor at George Mason University.
This ruling comes at a time when Tesla fights sales partially emerging from Mr. Musk’s political activities.