Tesla Plans Appeal in Fatal Autopilot crash Case
tesla has announced its intention too appeal a jury’s verdict in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a 2019 crash involving its Autopilot system. The company asserts that the jury’s decision contains considerable errors of law and that irregularities occurred during the trial.
In a statement, Tesla maintained that the driver was solely responsible for the accident, citing evidence that the driver was speeding and distracted by searching for a dropped phone, wiht their foot on the accelerator, which they claim overrode Autopilot. The company emphasized that no vehicle in 2019,nor any currently available,could have prevented the crash,and that the case was misrepresented by plaintiffs’ lawyers as being about Autopilot rather than the driver’s admitted fault.
This legal battle occurs against a backdrop of ongoing scrutiny of Tesla’s driver-assistance systems. A 2024 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation into Autopilot concluded that crashes were primarily linked to driver misuse of the system, not the system itself. The NHTSA also found that Autopilot was “overly permissive” and failed to adequately ensure drivers remained attentive to the road,a finding that aligns with the circumstances of the 2019 Florida crash.
The performance and capabilities of Tesla’s autonomous driving technology are central to the company’s future business strategy. CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that Full Self-Driving (FSD), an advanced upgrade to Autopilot, is “safer than human driving.” The viability of Tesla’s planned Robotaxi service hinges on FSD’s ability to operate with minimal or no human intervention. Early deployments of this service have reportedly yielded mixed results.
Update, August 1, 6:05PM ET: This story was updated after publication to include Tesla’s statement.
