After a court verdict which would cost Tesla $242.5 million, the automaker is asking that verdict be tossed out entirely. Alternatively, the company wants a new trial in Florida, hoping it would win or at least not owe such a staggering amount.
The case in question stems from a fatal crash where Autopilot was allegedly engaged. A man in his Tesla Model S was traveling in Key Largo, Florida back in 2019 when he dropped his phone onto the floorboard.
Believing the car would automatically stop if anything were detected in front of it, the man took his eyes entirely off the road, stooping down to retrieve his phone. Instead, while the man was inattentive, the Tesla sedan blasted through an intersection at 60 mph.
After going through the intersection, the Model S hit a car that was parked. Two people were standing on the other side of that vehicle, severely injuring one and killing the other. After a federal trial in Miami, a jury found Tesla was liable for the crash, awarding the injured party and the family of the deceased that large monetary sum.
While we’ve seen quite a few automotive publications which obviously have a political ideological bone to pick with Elon Musk celebrate this verdict, they seem to lack the bigger picture. Whether or not you like Tesla or Musk, legal precedents like this will impact the auto industry, especially as more automakers push into autonomous driving capabilities.
We don’t know all the minute details of this case, but the outcome does seem a little interesting. After all, we’ve used Autopilot in Teslas and there’s an explicit warning about staying alert and ready to take over at any time.
That was Tesla’s argument in court, but the jury obviously felt differently. The same thing could happen with accidents involving Ford’s BlueCruise, GM’s Super Cruise, or any other automaker’s system. Maybe it should – we don’t know for sure.
Tesla is hoping for a new trial, believing it would turn out favorably for it. We’ll see if it’s successful in that approach.