From a link inside the article:
https://electrek.co/2025/08/01/tesl...fatal-autopilot-crash-has-to-pay-329-million/
the jury ... finding Tesla partially liable (33%) for the crash and awarding the plaintiffs $129 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.
...
Brett Schreiber of Singleton Schreiber, lead attorney for the plaintiffs
Tesla designed autopilot only for controlled access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere, alongside Elon Musk telling the world Autopilot drove better than humans. Tesla’s lies turned our roads into test tracks for their fundamentally flawed technology, putting everyday Americans like Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo in harm’s way. Today’s verdict represents justice for Naibel’s tragic death and Dillon’s lifelong injuries, holding Tesla and Musk accountable for propping up the company’s trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives.
... the first wrongful death case involving Tesla’s ADAS systems (Autopilot and Full Self-Driving) to reach trial.
...
George McGee was driving his Model S on Autopilot in Key Largo in April 2019 when he dropped his phone and looked down to pick it up when the car blew past a stop sign at a T intersection, and crashed into a parked Chevrolet Tahoe.
22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo were standing next to the parked Tahoe. Benavides died and Angulo was seriously injured.
The law firm gets 1/3d of that award fee. Not being on the jury nor having read the transcript, I'll defer judgement.
The 2019 AutoPilot had rough edges that were corrected over time. I paid an extra $1,200 for AutoPilot (now free) yet it saved the life of my wife, her dog, and me when I had a medical emergency a month later. I wasn't asked to testify.
This wasn't a "criminal" but a "civil" case from a crash that happened six years ago. Further in the article:
What else does
@papab want Tesla to do today, September 1, 2025?
I paid $9 k to replace my 2019 Model 3 battery which preserves my $1,200 AutoPilot and $6,000 FSD bought in October 2019. I could not find an equivalent EV for $9 k and fully realize this will be the last battery for my car.
Tesla stopped making the NMC chemistry, 54 kWh, battery about three years ago. The current battery, LiFePo, uses an ethernet ring instead of CAN bus so it is incompatible. NCA batteries age from both time and use. Yet at 195 miles maximum range, I know how to go anywhere I want. Especially now that I can charge at the growing numbers of SuperChargers and CCS-1 stations.
So again,
@papab, what do you want Tesla to do now?
I've already sold my TSLA stock after Musk got distracted. There are lots of rumors of newer EVs but ...
no product. Since my 2019 Model 3 "ain't broke" and nothing significantly better for the price on the market, I don't need to replace it.
Bob Wilson
ps. From the article, "
George McGee was driving his Model S on Autopilot in Key Largo in April 2019 when he dropped his phone and looked down to pick it up when the car blew past a stop sign at a T intersection." The 2019 AutoPilot would not "see" obscured, angled, or "blind" STOP signs. This included false reactions to signs twisted by the wind or earlier accidents. However, I've not had this problem show up for years.
pps. Before closing the window, I found this in the article:
Update: Tesla’s lawyers sent us the following comment about the verdict:
Today’s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla’s and the entire industry’s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology. We plan to appeal given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial. Even though this jury found that the driver was overwhelmingly responsible for this tragic accident in 2019, the evidence has always shown that this driver was solely at fault because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator – which overrode Autopilot – as he rummaged for his dropped phone without his eyes on the road. To be clear, no car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash. This was never about Autopilot; it was a fiction concocted by plaintiffs’ lawyers blaming the car when the driver – from day one – admitted and accepted responsibility.
So
@papab what do you think TSLA should do today?
