A jury in Florida has found Tesla partially responsible for the 2019 accident in which a model S sedan killed a pedestrian and seriously injured using a self-driving software.
The plaintiff had argued the aid software, called the autopylot, should alert the driver and activate the brake before the accident.
Tesla had retained the driver, George McGi, was on a mistake and the BBC in a statement called the verdict “wrong”, while vowing to appeal. The result means that the company will have to pay $ 243m (£ 189m) in punitive and compensatory damage.
The judgment has a setback for Tesla and CEO Elone Musk, which described the company’s self-driving technology as important for the future of the company.
Tesla took a dip after news and the US markets were about 2% less when the shutdown.
After the verdict, the lawyers of the plaintiff said that Mr. Musk had incorrectly presented the capabilities of the company’s autopylot driver aid software.
Attorney Brett Shereber said in a statement to the BBC, “Tesla designed the autopylot for only controlled-wheeled highways, yet deliberately did not ban drivers from using it elsewhere, as well as Elon Musk said that the world autopylot worked better than humans.”
Mr. Shreyibar said that Tesla and Mr. Musk had long promoted the evaluation of the company with “self-driving promotion at the cost of human life”.
“Tesla’s lies turned our streets into testing tracks for its fundamental technology for its fundamental technology,” he said.
The company was sued by 22-year-old Nibel Benvids Lyon’s family, killed by model S in 2019 in a T-entraction at Florida Keys. Her lover Dillon Angulo suffered from lifetime injuries and was also involved in the suit.
The court heard the driver, Mr. McGi lost the road when he dropped his phone as he was coming near the intersection, causing his car to continue through it and crashed into an SUV on the other side. Both the victims were standing nearby.
Neither Mr. McGagi, nor autopylot software, hit a brake in time to prevent accidents.
After three weeks of testing, the jury awarded $ 329m in total damage, including $ 129m in compensatory damage and $ 200m in punitive damage aimed at preventing Tesla from future harmful behavior.
Tesla would be responsible for paying a third of compensatory losses – $ 42.5m – and perfection of $ 200m in punitive damage, but according to the company, punitive damage can be shared on a low amount.
Tesla said in a statement, “Today’s decision is wrong and only works to endanger the entire industry’s efforts to refund motor vehicle safety and to develop Tesla and develop life-saving technology.”
Tesla said the evidence in the trial revealed that the driver was completely at fault as he was running fast with his leg on the accelerator, who over Road, while looking for his phone and not on the road.
Tesla said, “To be clear, there is no car in 2019, and today anyone stops this accident.” “It was never about the autopylot; it blamed the car by the plaintiffs when the driver – from the first day – accepted and accepted the responsibility.”
While other federal cases associated with autopylot have taken place during deadly accidents, the Florida case ended on Friday, the first federal to go into a jury.
Last year, Tesla prosecuted an accident in 2018, killing an Apple Engineer after hitting the company’s highway barrier while operating the company’s autopylot software.
In 2023, a state jury in California found that Tesla was not a mistake in a case alleging that the autopylal had caused death.
In the trial, Mr. McGi said that his concept of Tesla’s autopylot was “it would help me that I should be a failure” or “mistake”, and he realized that the software has failed them.
Mr. McGi has prosecuted a separate lawsuit with the plaintiff for an unknown amount.
Tesla has long been investigated on its autopylot and self-driving technology, and critics saw the jury’s decision.
“Tesla is finally being held accountable to his faulty designs and gross careless engineering practices,” said Missy Coming, a robotics professor at George Mason University.
The decision comes as Tesla is weakening the sales arising out of the political activities of Shri Musk.
