A Florida jury has ordered Tesla to pay $243 million in damages to the family of Naibel Benavides and her partner, Dillon Angulo, after a fatal crash involving a Model S operating on Autopilot — www.naijnaira.com reports.
According to Sky News, Benavides had been stargazing in 2019 when she was hit by the speeding car and thrown over 70 feet. Her boyfriend sustained severe injuries. The car’s driver, George McGee, admitted he was distracted by his phone at the time and had already reached a settlement with the victims’ families.
Lawyers argued Tesla allowed its Autopilot feature to operate on streets it wasn’t designed for, despite public claims from Elon Musk that it could outperform human drivers. “Tesla designed Autopilot only for controlled-access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere,” said attorney Brett Schreiber.
Tesla plans to appeal, calling the verdict “wrong” and warning it may discourage innovation in driver-assist technologies.
The jury also heard that Tesla initially denied having data and video of the crash, but forensic experts recovered it. The company later admitted it had overlooked the evidence.
Legal experts believe this ruling could prompt a wave of similar lawsuits.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
