David Bridges
A jury in Florida has determined that Tesla bears partial responsibility for a tragic 2019 crash linked to the company’s Autopilot self-driving feature, as reported by The Washington Post. The verdict mandates that Tesla pay $43 million in compensatory damages, with additional punitive damages likely to follow. This ruling marks a significant moment, as Tesla has typically avoided accountability for incidents involving vehicles equipped with Autopilot.
The Autopilot system is a feature that comes standard in Tesla vehicles, providing functionalities such as collision detection and emergency braking. However, the outcome of this Florida case diverged from previous instances. The jury concluded that the autonomous technology allowed driver George McGee to divert his attention from the road, resulting in a collision with pedestrians Naibel Benavides Leon and Dillon Angulo, tragically leading to one fatality and severe injuries to the other.
Throughout the trial, Tesla’s legal team contended that McGee’s choice to look away from the road to grab his phone was the primary cause of the accident, arguing that the Autopilot system should not be implicated. In contrast, the plaintiffs, representing Angulo and Benavides Leon’s family, asserted that the way Tesla and Elon Musk promoted the Autopilot feature fostered a misleading perception of its safety. “My understanding was that it would assist me in case of a failure… or if I made an error,” McGee testified. “In this instance, I feel it let me down.” Ultimately, the jury allocated two-thirds of the blame to McGee and one-third to Tesla, as reported by NBC News.
Upon being contacted for a response, Tesla asserted its intention to appeal the verdict, issuing the following statement:
“Today’s verdict is incorrect and undermines automotive safety while threatening Tesla’s and the broader industry’s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technologies. We are determined to challenge this ruling due to significant legal errors and irregularities during the trial. Although the jury concluded that the driver was predominantly responsible for this tragic incident in 2019, the evidence consistently indicated that the driver was entirely at fault for speeding, with his foot on the accelerator—overriding Autopilot—while searching for his dropped phone without maintaining focus on the road. It is important to clarify that no vehicle in 2019, nor any available today, could have prevented this collision. This case has never been about Autopilot; it was a narrative fabricated by the plaintiffs’ attorneys who sought to shift blame onto the vehicle when the driver has always acknowledged his responsibility from the outset.”
In a 2024 investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into the Autopilot system, findings indicated that accidents were primarily attributed to driver misuse rather than flaws in the technology itself. The NHTSA also determined that Autopilot’s design was excessively lenient and “did not sufficiently ensure that drivers remained engaged with the driving task,” a conclusion that resonates with the circumstances surrounding the 2019 Florida incident.
While Autopilot represents just one facet of Tesla’s extensive suite of self-driving features, the promotion of its vehicles as capable of autonomous operation is central to the company’s future vision. Elon Musk has asserted that the Full Self-Driving (FSD) package, which is an upgraded, paid version of Autopilot, is “safer than human driving.” Tesla’s ambitious Robotaxi initiative depends on FSD functioning effectively with little to no human oversight, although initial results from the service’s rollout have been mixed.
Update, August 1, 6:05PM ET: This article has been revised to incorporate Tesla’s statement following its initial publication.
Daniel Mercer
