Tesla Driver Testifies Autopilot Failed to Prevent Fatal Crash
The driver, George Brian McGee, was driving his new Tesla Model S on a dark, two-lane road in South Florida when his phone fell to the floor and he bent to find it. That's when he failed to see the road was ending in a T-intersection and a sport-utility vehicle was parked on the other side and two people were standing next to that car.
Neither he nor Autopilot hit the brakes, and the Tesla crashed into the S.U.V. at 62 miles per hour, killing a 22-year old woman and gravely injuring her boyfriend.
In a civil case in federal court in Miami, Mr. McGee said on the witness stand that he was responsible for keeping his eyes on the road even with Autopilot engaged. But he also said he had been relying on Tesla's semi-automated driving system to serve as his co-pilot, and thought it had the capability to avoid such a crash.
'I thought it would assist me if I made a mistake,' said Mr. McGee, 48, a partner in a Florida private equity firm. 'It didn't warn me of the car and the individuals and hit the brakes.'
The case, in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida, was filed by the family of the woman killed in the crash, Naibel Benavides, and her companion, Dillon Angulo. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages from Tesla and aim to convince the jury that Tesla was partly responsible for the crash.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
9 minutes ago
- New York Post
Woman shot at Los Angeles residential day care, suspect arrested
One woman was injured in a shooting at a residential day care in an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood Tuesday afternoon. Authorities responded to the scene at the Kids Dream Learning Center in the Granada Hills neighborhood, just 10 miles south of Santa Clarita, in the early afternoon. 3 A woman was shot in the hand at a residential daycare in Los Angeles' Granada Hills neighborhood. Google Maps Advertisement One woman, who was shot in the hand, reported the shooting to the Los Angeles Police Department over the phone, authorities told NBC Los Angeles. There were children present at the day care during the shooting, but none were injured, officials said. Another woman was also seen being taken away to a nearby hospital, but it was unclear if she was also shot. Advertisement 3 Another woman was also taken away on a stretcher, but it's unclear if she was injured. KABC Both women were conscious when authorities arrived and were taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition, ABC 7 reported. Evidence markers were seen scattered around the front of the two-story daycare. By the time authorities arrived, the suspect had already fled the scene in a grey Tesla. Advertisement But the person was quickly apprehended seven miles south of the shooting. 3 There were children present at the daycare during the shooting, but they were all unharmed, officials said. KABC The suspect's identity has not been released. Footage obtained by KTLA showed an elderly white man with a graying beard being cuffed near the getaway car. The circumstances and a possible motive are still under investigation. Advertisement New York City is no stranger to senseless shootings at youth centers. In 2020, a shirtless gunman opened fire near a day care in the Bronx and sparked a gunfight. Eight children were inside the day care at the time. The center's owner wasn't surprised, but noted that the tykes could've been in serious danger if they'd been leaving when the shooting broke out. In 2022, a 3-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet outside a day care in Brooklyn. She was hit in the shoulder and had to wear a sling on her arm while she recovered. The child's distraught parents, meanwhile, took the horrific injury as a sign to pack up and leave the area as soon as they could.
Los Angeles Times
9 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Shooting at Granada Hills day care wounds 2 adults; suspected gunman arrested
A suspected gunman has been arrested and two adults transported to hospitals after a shooting at a Granada Hills day care on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. Paramedics responded to a residence where a day care is located, at 17320 W. Firma Court, around 12:30 p.m., according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz. The two adults were taken to a hospital in stable condition, and the LAFD is working with the day care and L.A. police to ensure all children are safely reunited with their parents, she said. It's not yet clear whether the shooting took place in proximity to any children. When L.A. Police Department officers arrived at the scene, they found one person suffering from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to a department spokesperson. No information was available on the second patient's wounds, the spokesperson said. The suspected gunman fled the scene in a Tesla, and officers found the vehicle and arrested him without incident near Balboa Boulevard and Sherman Way — about seven miles from the scene of the shooting, police said. The site of the shooting, Kids Dream Learning Center, is in a residential area of Granada Hills and offers programs for infants, toddlers and preschool-age children from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, according to its website. The center did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Although the shooting took place on the day care's property, it was not immediately known whether it took place indoors or outdoors and what degree of danger children might have been exposed to, Lantz said. This is a developing story.
USA Today
39 minutes ago
- USA Today
Samsung stock rises on Tesla partnership after $16.5 billion AI chip deal
Shares in Samsung Electronics eked out small gains on Tuesday, following a sharp rally the previous day after the South Korean technology company clinched a $16.5 billion deal to supply artificial intelligence chips to Tesla TSLA.O. Analysts said the agreement could bolster the company's unprofitable contract manufacturing business, but Samsung faces challenges in securing additional large customers both for logic chips and memory chips where it struggles against TSMC and SK Hynix "This new deal breathes some much-needed life into the business and may signal the start of a turning point for Samsung, but its memory business will need to make considerable progress too," Ben Barringer, global technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said. Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, has suffered delays in supplying the latest high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to key U.S. customer Nvidia NVDA.O, a setback that has dented its profits and weighed on its stock. In its "foundry" or contract manufacturing business, where it manufactures logic chips designed by customers, Samsung remains a distant second to market leader TSMC. "Whether this will open the door for additional large customers will depend heavily on its execution," Barringer said. Shares of Samsung recovered from early losses to close 0.3% higher on Tuesday, lagging the broader market's .KS11 0.7% gain. The shares were down more than 2% earlier in the session after surging nearly 7% on Monday, following the Tesla deal. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee departed for Washington on Tuesday. A Yonhap News Agency report said he was expected to support trade talks between South Korea and the U.S. but a company spokesperson, when contacted by Reuters, described it as "business trip", with no further details. While South Korea has been promoting partnerships in chips and shipbuilding with the U.S., a trade official said the Tesla deal was unrelated to ongoing trade talks aimed at reducing U.S. tariffs. Analysts, however, said the deal could enhance prospects for Samsung's investments in its Texas-based new chip factory. Eating at the Tesla Diner: Now serving EVs, burgers and fries. What the Tesla Diner could mean for drivers Favorable terms Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late on Sunday that Samsung's new chip factory in Taylor, Texas, would make the auto company's next-generation AI6 chips, likely to be used in self-driving cars, humanoid robots and data centers, without elaborating on the timing of the production. The deal comes as Samsung has struggled to win major customers for its new Texas factory, partly due to low production yields of its cutting-edge chips. "There also has to be a chance that the company was able to strike the long-term deal on favourable terms, given that Samsung needed to prove its contract manufacturing capabilities," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. The long-term supply deal for a key technology from a U.S. factory would "lessen the risk of supply-chain dislocations or tariff friction," he said. "Samsung now needs to prove it can deliver in the right volume to the right quality for what is likely to be a demanding customer." While the deal is "more about securing the longer-term future, we won't see these in cars for at least a year or two," said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang and Jihoon Lee in Seoul; Editing by Ed Davies and Jacqueline Wong
