{"id":12531,"date":"2025-08-02T19:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T19:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/tesla-to-pay-more-than-200-million-in-damages-after-being-found-partly-liable-for-fatal-autopilot-crash\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T19:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T19:12:09","slug":"tesla-to-pay-more-than-200-million-in-damages-after-being-found-partly-liable-for-fatal-autopilot-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/tesla-to-pay-more-than-200-million-in-damages-after-being-found-partly-liable-for-fatal-autopilot-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla to pay more than $200 million in damages after being found partly liable for fatal Autopilot crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Software <\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<p>A federal jury in Florida found Tesla partly liable for a deadly 2019 crash involving Tesla\u2019s Autopilot driver assist software, according to reports from <em>The New York Times<\/em> and CNBC. Tesla has been ordered to pay $200 million in punitive damages and about $43 million in compensatory damages, CBS News reports.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a rare loss in court for Tesla over Autopilot, which has been linked to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths by the \u200b\u200bNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The company won two jury trials in 2023 resulting from lawsuits alleging that Autopilot was to blame for crashes, and last year, a lawsuit challenging Tesla\u2019s claims about Autopilot was dismissed by a federal judge. The loss also comes as Tesla is starting to test its robotaxi service in Austin and Bay Area \u2014 though in the latter location, it arguably isn\u2019t a robotaxi service just yet.<\/p>\n<p>Tesla\u2019s Autopilot feature is designed to control a vehicle\u2019s steering and brakes; however, some argue that the EV-maker has misled drivers about its cars\u2019 capabilities. The California Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, has accused Tesla of falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full-Self Driving capabilities as autonomous driving features.<\/p>\n<p>During the trial, which started in July, plaintiffs argued that Tesla\u2019s driver-assist software was at fault for causing a crash that killed 22-year-old Naibel Benavides. While driving in Key Largo, Florida, Tesla owner George McGee crashed into Benavides\u2019 vehicle after bending over to grab a phone that he had dropped. McGee told the jury he thought Autopilot \u201cwould protect him and prevent a serious crash if he made a mistake,\u201d according to the <em>NYT<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s verdict is wrong and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla\u2019s and the entire industry\u2019s efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology,\u201d the company said in a statement to the <em>NYT<\/em>. The company plans to appeal.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span><strong>Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li id=\"follow-author-article_footer-dmcyOmF1dGhvclByb2ZpbGU6MTE2\"><span aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\"><span><span><svg width=\"9\" height=\"9\" viewBox=\"0 0 9 9\" fill=\"none\" aria-label=\"Follow\"><path d=\"M5 0H4V4H0V5H4V9H5V5H9V4H5V0Z\" \/><\/svg><\/span><span>Emma Roth<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li id=\"follow-author-article_footer-dmcyOmF1dGhvclByb2ZpbGU6MTIz\"><span aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\"><span><span><svg width=\"9\" height=\"9\" viewBox=\"0 0 9 9\" fill=\"none\" aria-label=\"Follow\"><path d=\"M5 0H4V4H0V5H4V9H5V5H9V4H5V0Z\" \/><\/svg><\/span><span>Jay Peters<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Software A federal jury in Florida found Tesla partly liable for a deadly 2019 crash involving Tesla\u2019s Autopilot driver assist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7282,"featured_media":12532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usaontheweb.com\/clone1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}