A Florida judge recently found "reasonable evidence" that Tesla (TSLA) -) and its leadership, including chief executive Elon Musk, allowed for the use of Autopilot despite knowing that the system was defective.
The ruling comes several years after the death of Stephen Banner, who was killed in 2019 when his Tesla Model 3 — with Autopilot engaged — drove under the trailer of an 18-wheeler.
Judge Reid Scott's ruling, made last week in the Circuit Court for Palm Beach County, allows Banner's family to proceed to trial and seek punitive damages from Tesla for intentional misconduct and gross negligence. The ruling was first reported by Reuters.
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Scott, pointing to a faked 2016 video that showed a Tesla apparently driving itself, said that the company "engaged in a marketing strategy that painted the products as autonomous." Scott added that Musk's public statements about Autopilot and self-driving had a "significant effect on the belief about the capabilities of the products."
Scott called the accident "eerily similar" to a fatal crash in 2016, in which Joshua Brown's Autopilot failed to detect crossing trucks.
"It would be reasonable to conclude that the Defendant Tesla through its CEO and engineers was acutely aware of the problem with the 'Autopilot' failing to detect cross traffic," the judge wrote.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hit comes in the wake of two cases that Tesla won earlier in the year.
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A California jury in April determined that Tesla was not at fault for a separate 2019 crash involving autopilot. The company was sued in 2020 for fraud, negligence and breach of contract.
Another jury in October likewise determined that Tesla was not at fault for a 2019 crash involving Autopilot. The survivors of the accident had sued Tesla alleging that the company knew Autopilot was defective.
Tesla successfully argued that the accident was the result of human error.
"This opinion opens the door for a public trial in which the judge seems inclined to admit a lot of testimony and other evidence that could be pretty awkward for Tesla and its CEO," University of South Carolina law professor Bryant Walker Smith told Reuters.
Several government agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, have been investigating the safety of Tesla's Autopilot and self-driving software for months.
Tesla shares, up nearly 100% for the year, lifted slightly in pre-market trading.
Contact Ian with tips via email, ian.krietzberg@thearenagroup.net, or Signal 732-804-1223.
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