A Florida judge found there was “reasonable evidence” suggesting that Tesla and its officials, including CEO Elon Musk, knew its cars had defective Autopilot systems, but allowed the cars to be driven in areas “unsafe for this technology.”
Last week’s ruling by Judge Reed Scott, in the Circuit Court of Palm Beach County, means the family of a man who died in a crash while a Tesla’s Autopilot was on can go to trial and seek punitive damages from Tesla for willful misconduct and gross violations. Negligence. Reuters I reported the news for the first time.
The blow to Tesla comes after the electric car maker won two product liability cases in California earlier this year over the safety of its Autopilot system. Autopilot is Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system that can perform automated driving tasks such as navigating on and off highway ramps, cruise control, lane changing, and automatic parking.
The lawsuit in Florida was the result of a 2019 crash north of Miami. Owner Steven Banner’s Model 3 drove under the trailer of an 18-wheeler that overturned on the road, shearing off the roof of the Tesla and killing Banner. The trial, which was scheduled for October, has been postponed and has not yet been rescheduled.
When the case goes to trial, it may reveal new information about large amounts of data collected by Tesla, information that is usually highly confidential.
Judge Scott’s finding that managers at the top of Tesla knew about the flaws could also mean Musk will have to testify. The judge said Tesla’s marketing strategy portrayed the products as autonomous and that Musk’s public statements about Autopilot “had a significant impact on belief about the products’ capabilities,” according to the ruling. The judge pointed to a misleading 2016 video, which was found to have been supervised by Musk, and which allegedly showed a Tesla being driven completely autonomously by the Autopilot system.
The billionaire businessman was not asked to sit to testify after the judge rejected Banners’ argument that Musk had “unique knowledge” of the issues in the case.
The judge compared the Banner accident to a similar fatal accident in 2016 involving Joshua Brown in which the autopilot failed to detect passing trucks, resulting in the vehicle crashing into the side of a tractor trailer at high speed. The judge also based his conclusion on testimony provided by Autopilot engineer Adam Gustafson and Dr. Mary “Missy” Cummings, director of the Center for Autonomy and Robotics at George Mason University.
Gustafson, who was the investigator in the Banner and Brown accidents, testified that in both cases Autopilot failed to detect the semi-tractor and stop the vehicle. The engineer also testified that although Tesla knew of the problem, no changes were made to the cross-traffic detection warning system from the date of Brown’s collision until Banner’s collision to account for cross-traffic.
The judge wrote in his ruling that the testimony of other Tesla engineers leads to a reasonable inference that Musk, who was “intimately involved” in developing Autopilot, was “fully aware” of the problem and failed to remedy it.
A Tesla spokesman could not be reached for comment.
As Tesla has done in the past, the automaker will likely argue that Banner’s crash was the result of human error. The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the crash found there was blame — according to the investigation, the truck driver failed to yield the right of way and Banner was inattentive due to over-reliance on Autopilot. But the NTSB also found that Autopilot did not send a visual or audible warning to the driver to put his hands back on the wheel, according to Bloomberg.
Tesla’s lawyers may rely on the precedent set in two previous cases this year, in which the automaker emerged victorious.
In April, Tesla scored a victory after a California jury decided the automaker was not liable for a 2019 accident involving Autopilot. Plaintiff Justine Hsu sued Tesla in 2020 for fraud, negligence and breach of contract, but was not awarded any damages.
A few weeks ago, a jury sided with Tesla over allegations that Autopilot led to the death of Tesla driver Micah Lee in 2019. The two plaintiffs, survivors of the crash, claimed that Tesla knew its product was defective and sought $400 million in damages. Tesla argued that the accident was the result of human error.
The case – No. 50-2019-CA-009962 – is being tried in the Circuit Court of Palm Beach County, Florida.