A jury will decide whether Tesla is partly to blame for the death of a university student, after a runaway car sent her flying while she was stargazing.
Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, had got out of a Chevrolet Tahoe near Key West, Florida, to look up at the sky in April 2019.
George McGee was driving a Tesla Model S sedan which blew through flashing red lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at nearly 70 miles an hour before ramming into the Tahoe and sending it into a spin.
The Tahoe, in turn, slammed into Benavides and sent her flying 75 feet through the air, killing her.
Angulo was also seriously injured in the incident.
Lawyers for the plaintiff argue that Tesla’s driver-assistance feature, Autopilot, should have warned McGee and braked.
Elon Musk’s company lays the blame solely on McGee, who was reaching for a dropped cell phone.
“The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla’s Autopilot technology,” Tesla said in a statement.
“Instead, like so many unfortunate accidents since cellphones were invented, this was caused by a distracted driver.”
McGee was sued separately by the plaintiffs. That case was settled.
A judgement against Tesla could be especially damaging as the company works to convince the public its self-driving technology is safe during a planned rollout of hundreds of thousands of Tesla robotaxis on U.S. roads by the end of 2026.
A jury trial is rare for the company, which often settles lawsuits, and this one is rarer yet because a judge recently ruled that Benavides’ family can argue for punitive damages.
The judge, Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued a partial summary judgement in June, throwing out charges of defective manufacturing and negligent misrepresentation against Tesla.
But she also ruled plaintiffs could argue other claims that would make the company liable and ask for punitive damages, which could prove costly.
“A reasonable jury could find that Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing their product and maximizing profit,” Bloom said in a filing.
The 2021 lawsuit alleges the driver relied on Autopilot to reduce speed or come to a stop when it detected objects in its way.
In legal documents, Tesla denied nearly all of the lawsuit’s allegations and said it expects that consumers will follow warnings in the vehicle and instructions in the owners’ manual, as well as comply with driving laws.
Tesla warns owners in manuals that its cars cannot drive themselves and they need to be ready to intervene at all times.
