Tesla Autopilot plaintiffs seek $345 million in damages over fatal crash in Florida
Attorneys for the plaintiffs on Thursday asked the jury to award damages of around $345 million. That includes $109 million in compensatory damages and $236 million in punitive damages. The trial in the Southern District of Florida started on July 14.
The suit centers around who shoulders the blame for a deadly crash that occurred in 2019 in Key Largo, Florida. A Tesla owner named George McGee was driving his Model S electric sedan while using the company's Enhanced Autopilot, a partially automated driving system.
While driving, McGee dropped his mobile phone that he was using and scrambled to pick it up. He said during the trial that he believed Enhanced Autopilot would brake if an obstacle was in the way. He accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 miles per hour, hitting a nearby empty parked car and its owners, who were standing on the other side of their vehicle.
Naibel Benavides, who was 22, died on the scene from injuries sustained in the crash. Her body was discovered about 75 feet away from the point of impact. Her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, survived but suffered multiple broken bones, a traumatic brain injury and psychological effects.
The plaintiffs have included Benavides' surviving family members, and Angulo, who testified in the trial. Angulo is seeking compensation for his medical expenses and pain and suffering, while Benavides' estate is suing for wrongful death, pain and suffering, and other punitive damages.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argued that Tesla's partially automated driving systems, marketed as Autopilot at the time, had dangerous defects, which should have been known and fixed by the company, and that use of Autopilot should have been limited to roads where it could perform safely.
They also argued that Musk and Tesla made false statements to customers, shareholders and the public, overstating the safety benefits and capabilities of Autopilot, which encouraged drivers to overly rely on it.
In opening arguments and throughout the trial, the plaintiffs' attorneys and expert witnesses cited a litany of Musk's past promises about Autopilot and Tesla's autonomous vehicle technology. The lawyers said
Tesla attorneys countered in court that the company had communicated directly with customers about how to use Autopilot and other features, and that McGee's driving was to blame for the collision. They said in closing arguments that Tesla works to develop technology to save drivers' lives, and that a ruling against the EV maker would send the wrong message.
The Benavides family had previously sued McGee and settled with him. McGee was charged in October 2019 with careless driving and didn't contest the charges.
While Tesla has typically been able to settle cases or move Autopilot-related suits into arbitration and out of the public eye, Judge Beth Bloom in the Miami court wrote, in an order in early July, that the case could move ahead to trial.
"A reasonable jury could find that Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing their product and maximizing profit," she wrote in that order.
For closing arguments on Thursday, the Benavides family and Angulo were in the courtroom. They looked away from screens anytime a video or picture of the scene of the crash was displayed.
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