A federal jury Friday found Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla partially liable for a fatal 2019 crash involving the electric vehicle (EV) maker\u2019s autopilot system. <\/p>\n
The Miami jury determined Tesla was 33 percent responsible for the crash and ordered the company to pay several million dollars in damages.<\/p>\n
The family of Naibel Benavides sued the EV maker over the crash that resulted in the 22-year-old’s death, alleging the company\u2019s autopilot system had \u201cdefective and unsafe characteristics\u201d that it failed to warn consumers about. <\/p>\n
\u201cTesla\u2019s lies turned our roads into test tracks for their fundamentally flawed technology, putting everyday Americans like Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo in harm’s way,\u201d Brett Schreiber, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday’s verdict represents justice for Naibel’s tragic death and Dillon’s lifelong injuries, holding Tesla and Musk accountable for propping up the company\u2019s trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n
In the 2019 crash, the driver of the car, George McGee, had activated Tesla\u2019s autopilot function and taken his eyes off the road to look at his phone when the system failed to register an upcoming intersection. <\/p>\n
The car drove through the intersection and struck a parked car, killing Benavides and injuring her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo. <\/p>\n
The jury awarded $59 million in compensatory damages to Benavides\u2019s family and $70 million to Angulo, while hitting Tesla with $200 million in punitive damages.\u00a0The company said it is liable for about $170 million in total damages, including $42.5 million in compensatory damages and $127.5 million in punitive damages.<\/p>\n
Tesla said in a statement that it plans to appeal the decision \u201cgiven the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla\u2019s and the entire industry\u2019s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology,\u201d the EV maker said. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven though this jury found that the driver was overwhelmingly responsible for this tragic accident in 2019, the evidence has always shown that this driver was solely at fault because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator \u2013 which overrode Autopilot \u2013 as he rummaged for his dropped phone without his eyes on the road,\u201d it added. \u201cTo be clear, no car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Updated at 6:48 p.m. EDT <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A federal jury Friday found Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla partially liable for a fatal 2019 crash involving the electric vehicle (EV) maker\u2019s autopilot system. The Miami jury determined Tesla was 33<\/p>\n