Tesla won its first trial in the United States involving allegations that its self-driving car feature had led to a user’s death, a significant victory as the company faces other trials with similar claims.
A 12-member jury in a California state court ruled 9-3 on Tuesday in favor of Tesla not having a manufacturing defect that caused the death of a driver. The company had been the target of a lawsuit from two passengers involved in a 2019 crash who accused Tesla of having defective software. The civil suit alleged the autopilot system caused owner Micah Lee’s Model 3 to veer off a highway east of Los Angeles at 65 mph, strike a palm tree, and burst into flames, all in the span of seconds. The 2019 crash killed Lee and injured the other two, including a then-8-year-old boy who was disemboweled, court documents claim.
ELECTION SECURITY AT CENTER OF VOTING SOFTWARE DEBATE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS TO UPDATE
There are at least 10 active lawsuits involving Tesla’s autopilot, several of which will go to court over the next year.
A jury in California ruled in April that Tesla’s autopilot driving software did not fail to perform safely in a crash that severely injured the driver.
Tesla has slowly been testing and rolling out its Autopilot service, which is the first step toward the Full Self-Driving system that it intends to launch. The service has been touted by CEO Elon Musk as crucial to helping the company distinguish itself in the growing marketplace of electric vehicles.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The software has come under scrutiny from various federal agencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced in Jan. that it was investigating Musk’s claims about the software. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating Tesla since August 2021 over claims of crashes occurring due to the software. The regulator hopes to determine if the software played any significant role in the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board has paid close attention to Tesla’s claims in an attempt to determine how safe it truly is. The board ruled that drunk driving and not autopilot caused an April 17, 2021, crash in Houston that killed two passengers.
