Tesla was ordered by a Florida jury on Friday to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to plaintiffs who claimed that the company’s “Autopilot” driver assistance technology was responsible for a fatal 2019 incident.
Attorney Darren Jeffrey Rousso, a partner at the legal firm that represented Angulo and Leon’s family, said the jury held Tesla’s technology partially to blame for a crash in Key Largo that killed Naibel Benavides Leon and injured her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo.
When driver George McGee’s Tesla crashed into a Chevrolet sport utility vehicle, killing Leon and wounding Angulo, the plaintiffs claimed Autopilot was at fault.
According to court documents, the jury awarded Angulo $70 million in damages, Leon’s family $59 million in compensatory damages, and $200 million in punitive damages.
Since the jury assigned one-third of the blame to Tesla, the compensatory damages will be reduced, Rousso said, with the total impact of the jury award totalling $242 million after these reductions.
“Justice was done,” Rousso said. “The jury heard all the evidence and came up with a fair and just verdict on behalf of our clients.”
Tesla will appeal the decision, according to its defense attorneys.
“Today’s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeapordize Tesla’s and the entire industry’s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology,” Tesla said through its legal team.
“The evidence has always shown that this driver was solely at fault because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator — which overrode Autopilot — as he rummaged for his dropped phone without his eyes on the road,” Tesla said.
“To be clear, no car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash. This was never about Autopilot.”
*
Email *
Website
