Tesla Gets Hit With a Large Verdict After Accident

As cars start to drive themselves more and more, a core legal question exists: When those cars err, and cause injury, who is liable? The driver? After all, drivers still will play some role in operating even an autonomous vehicle. Or is the manufacturer liable if the car’s programming causes it to injure somebody?

Victims Sue Tesla

Tesla may be getting that answer the hard way, based on a recent verdict against it in Florida. The case arose when a self-driving Tesla plowed into a couple in Key Largo, Florida.

Evidence showed that the driver had dropped his cellphone, and as he was looking for it, he alleged that the Tesla blew through an intersection, leading the vehicle to crash into the couple, killing one of them and seriously injuring the other. The driver testified that he believed that the autopilot would prevent the car from running through intersections, the way that it apparently did.

Like many similar lawsuits, this one alleged that Tesla vehicles allow people to utilize auto driving features, on roads where such usage is unsafe, or where the car’s technology cannot properly and safely navigate the vehicle.

Of course, autonomous vehicles (or even non-autonomous vehicles, that have “self driving” features) have caused accidents for years—this is nothing new. In most of these cases, when manufacturers get sued, they contend that their vehicles repeatedly warn drivers that they must remain alert and aware, even when the car is “driving itself.”

They also blame victims for trying to pin liability on accidents on the autonomous vehicles in accidents that, they say, no car could have prevented.

Victims however say that the features of self-driving cars, encourage people to misuse them; that you can warn drivers as much as you want, but the car’s inherent self driving features encourage drivers into a false sense of security.

Jury Splits Blame

The recent jury against Tesla, found the automaker $242 million liable to the family for the fatal crash.

However, the dollar figure, although large, doesn’t tell the whole story—even with that large number, the jury still only found Tesla 33% responsible for the crash, indicating that many juries in these kinds of cases going forward, will probably share liability between driver and manufacturer. In fact, Tesla (and other automakers) have won other cases, with similar issues.

That’s also because even in the most autonomous of vehicles, humans still will be able to override the car’s driving—in fact, in this recent case, Tesla attorneys argued that the driver of the Tesla accelerated the vehicle faster than the set 45mph, which the car was driving at on its own.

Still, because of the dollar figure, Tesla sees the case as a defeat—and a warning of things to come, as other automakers and Tesla fear that the case could start an avalanche of similar cases and verdicts.

Injured by an autonomous–or any–vehicle? Call the Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. today at 617-275-4200 for help.

Sources:

autoblog.com/news/243m-tesla-autopilot-verdict-sparks-wave-of-new-lawsuits

businessinsider.com/tesla-federal-trial-verdict-deadly-autopilot-crash-florida-2025-8