The most recent court ruling in Florida suggests that Tesla Inc. TSLA and its CEO, Elon Musk, were potentially aware of a significant Autopilot defect and chose to overlook it.
What Happened: A Reuters report indicates that Judge Reid Scott of the Circuit Court for Palm Beach County found “reasonable evidence” to suggest that Tesla and Musk knew about a malfunctioning Autopilot system but decided to let the vehicles operate despite the risk. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit linked to a fatal accident involving Tesla’s Autopilot system.
The court’s decision suggests that Tesla and Musk may have falsely presented their products as autonomous in their marketing campaigns. It also indicates that Musk’s public pronouncements significantly swayed the public perception of Tesla’s product capabilities.
The lawsuit is connected to a 2019 accident near Miami, where a Tesla Model 3, controlled by Autopilot, collided with a tractor-trailer, resulting in the vehicle owner Stephen Banner‘s death. Initially scheduled for trial in October, the case has been indefinitely postponed.
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Following the judge’s summary, there were “alarming inconsistencies” between Tesla’s internal knowledge and its marketing claims. This ruling could lead to a public trial, and if found guilty, Tesla and Musk may face significant penalties.
Tesla has not responded to this latest development. Earlier this year, the company successfully defended itself in two product liability trials in California related to the Autopilot system.
Why It Matters: This development comes after Tesla’s Autopilot was criticized when its engineers testified about unaddressed crash limitations. The engineers revealed in a lawsuit that Tesla failed to address the deficiencies in its Autopilot system after a similar fatal crash in 2016.
In a contrasting incident, a Chinese court cleared Tesla of any blame in a 2022 accident involving a Model Y. The verdict came after a forensic investigation determined that the accident was not due to defects in the vehicle’s steering or braking system.
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