Jury Hits Musk With $329 Million Black Eye in Tesla Verdict

Sparkchaser

A Miami jury has ordered Tesla to pay $329 million in damages related to a 2019 fatal crash in which the car’s “autopilot” feature sped its driver through a stop sign into a parked car, killing one person and severely injuring the other.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jury-hits-elon-musk-with-329-million-black-eye-in-tesla-verdict/?via=FB_Page&source=TDB

InternetJeff

Stay tuned for appeal. Dude literally was on his cell phone.

takeahike

After 20 remittiturs, 30 motions and 6 appeals it will settle for 50 lashes with a wet noodle.

See: Grimshaw vs. Ford Motor Company, 119 Cal.App.3d 757, 174 Cal.Rptr. 348 (1981). The infamous Pinto memo that revealed Ford’s prior awareness of the defect that would cause fires in rear end collisions, while not admitted into evidence, was testified to, and which concluded that the ultimate damages Ford would have to pay for deaths, injuries and property damage as a result of the defect would come to approximately $49 million vs. that the cost of fixing the defect at $11 per car would come to $137 million. Realizing that it was cheaper and thus “wiser” to not bother fixing the defect, Ford took that course.

The jury awarded plaintiffs $127.8 million in damages [$125 million of which was punitive damages], the largest ever in US product liability and personal injury cases. The trial judge reduced the jury’s punitive damages award of $125 million to $3.5 million, which judgment was affirmed by the appellate court.

Somewhat-Reticent

takeahike Cheaper to buy a judge?

Splitpair

InternetJeff Dude literally was on his cell phone.

Not allowed to do that while driving in Florida, guess he found that out why the hard way.

Splitpair

Sparkchaser A Miami jury has ordered Tesla to pay $329 million in damages related to a 2019 fatal crash in which the car’s “autopilot” feature sped its driver through a stop sign into a parked car, killing one person and severely injuring the other.

And the amount has already been reduced.

Jury finds Tesla’s Autopilot 33% responsible for fatal crash and orders $243 million payment to victims.

A Florida jury has awarded the estate of a woman killed in an Autopilot-involved crash nearly $243 million, having found Tesla 33% responsible.

A June 30 motion filed in court states that U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom dismissed claims of defective manufacture and negligent misrepresentation of Autopilot. She allowed claims of defective design and failure to warn to proceed to trial.

The full story here.

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2025/08/05/jury-finds-teslas-autopilot-33-responsible-for-fatal-crash-and-orders-243-million-payment-to-victims/

InternetJeff

This will be whittled down further on appeal, maybe to nothing or possibly thrown out. The driver admitted he was distracted on his phone. Being on your phone while driving is actually against the law in many jurisdictions. Strange if he hasn’t/won’t be charged for that. He blew through flashing lights and a stop sign at 62 mph. Regardless of the technology, the driver of a vehicle is ultimately responsible.

The fact that he was not sued personally was a strategic blunder by the plaintiffs. Maybe they can refile against him.

urbanriot

InternetJeff his will be whittled down further on appeal, maybe to nothing or possibly thrown out.

Not necessarily, this isn’t as simple as it might sound.

Tesla has a disclaimer that the driver must be attentive when the driving system is engaged. Florida statutes literally state that the automatic driving system is responsible for driving.

While you have a driver who admitted to being negligent, the question remains if the system was “fully” autonomous as Florida’s statutes hinge on that word. Tesla makes it a little less clear as their manual uses the phrase, “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)”.

I briefly perused some previous cases and it seems like everyone from the government(s) to the manufacturers to technology pundits to lawyers to insurance companies aren’t entirely sure who’s responsible. Even the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has on their main page, “policymakers are working to address before automated driving systems reach their maturity and are available to the public.”

InternetJeff

urbanriot Florida statutes literally state that the automatic driving system is responsible for driving.

I don’t think Tesla’s system is an “automatic driving system”, as you would find on bonafide autonomous driverless cars. Tesla describes their Autopilot system as a “advanced driver assistance system”. Even the so-called Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode requires “your active supervision”, according to their product page.

https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot

Fooling around with a cell phone while driving, as admitted by the defendant, precludes effective “active supervision”. Obviously that was true in this case, based upon the driver’s failure to intervene.

urbanriot I briefly perused some previous cases and it seems like everyone from the government(s) to the manufacturers to technology pundits to lawyers to insurance companies aren’t entirely sure who’s responsible.

This supports my contention that the plaintiffs made a strategic blunder in not including the driver in their lawsuit.

I take no position for or against Tesla here, but plaintiffs should have gone after the driver on his cellphone independent of whether or not they get any judgment money from Tesla

Splitpair

InternetJeff This supports my contention that the plaintiffs made a strategic blunder in not including the driver in their lawsuit.

Could it be the driver has nothing worth suing him for, like say no insurance and maybe no license for driving without insurance.

urbanriot

InternetJeff I don’t think Tesla’s system is an “automatic driving system”

Well if you look online, various parties seem to consider self-driving cars to belong in one of six classifications and according to Wikipedia, Tesla cars fall into “Level 2 automation as defined by SAE International” which demonstrates that there is a standards organization that classifies these vehicles as being “Partial Automation”.

Considering that Florida statues hinge on the word “fully” while SAE International considers them “partial”, there’s a good possibility you’re right. But at the same time Tesla is calling themselves “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” so the other side would have an argument there, especially considering that the owner of the vehicle could claim they understood those words to mean “fully”.

Splitpair Could it be the driver has nothing worth suing him for, like say no insurance and maybe no license for driving without insurance.

It’s probably more complicated than that and it’s more than likely a result of what I referenced above, this messy mix of Florida laws, driver liabilities, service agreements, manufacturer liabilities, and more. Why wade into this mess to squeeze an individual of insurance money when you can go after big bad Tesla?

My guess is they gambled on a win against Tesla that would have a better payout and their gamble actually paid off.

InternetJeff

Splitpair …say no insurance and maybe no license for driving without insurance.

That’s a ciminal, not civil, issue. IMO someone operating a vehicle without required insurance and/or a license, and results in death of another, should be charged and the book thrown at him.

If a loved one of mine was killed by someone playing on his cell phone while driving, I would not be going after the car maker. I’d be going after the person driving the car. I would go after them in court. I would also want to believe that I would have the self control to not go after them extrajudicially. You can never really know how someone would react in a situation like this, or what the loved ones of the deceased are going through.

real_aurgathor

InternetJeff

InternetJeff I don’t think Tesla’s system is an “automatic driving system”,

That is correct, but that wasn’t how Tesla advertised it.

As per OPs link:

The company previously claimed that its autopilot feature is safer than a human driving, yet counsel for the victims’ families shredded those claims in a scathing post-verdict statement.

“Tesla designed Autopilot only for controlled access highways yet deliberately chose not to restrict drivers from using it elsewhere, alongside Elon Musk telling the world Autopilot drove better than humans,” Brett Schreiber, counsel for the plaintiffs, said in an e-mailed statement on Friday, NBC reported. “Tesla’s lies turned our roads into test tracks for their fundamentally flawed technology, putting everyday Americans like Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo in harm’s way.”

real_aurgathor

Splitpair Could it be the driver has nothing worth suing him for, like say no insurance and maybe no license for driving without insurance.

You should stop making assumption not based on the most likely reality. I think there is better than 90% chance that the driver was insured and a 99% chance that he was licensed; however, getting even just a million from him or from his insurance company would’ve been highly unlikely.

Car insurance policies have limits on the amount they may pay out in case of a death resulting from an accident. These limits are specified within the terms of the policy, and so they are a crucial factor in determining the potential financial compensation available.

egeezer

Sparkchaser
Maybe Musk shouldn’t have marketed it as “Autopilot”.

Splitpair

InternetJeff That’s a ciminal, not civil, issue. IMO someone operating a vehicle without required insurance and/or a license, and results in death of another, should be charged and the book thrown at him.

In Florida all they really do 90% of the time is cancel the DL and tag, that is why those of us who do have insurance have to carry extra coverage for protection from uninsured drivers who tend to sue everyone in sight when they get injured hitting someone else while they shouldn’t have been driving in the first place.

We have too many personal injury liars in this state who will take a case on a contingency even if the person they are representing caused the collision and is uninsured.

Technically Florida is a no-fault state which has been turned into everyone is at fault in a collision state and those who are insured get hosed over.

The FHP statistics indicate only 35% of drivers in the SE Florida region have valid licenses and insurance, the rest are just driving illegally and get caught over and over again until the kill someone.

All the courts down there do is suspend their DL over and over again and fine them, which they never pay, so many of them have dozen’s of arrest warrants that no one enforces, they just write them more citations for driving with a suspended license, no tag and no insurance.

Law enforcement lacks the manpower to arrest them, only to have the arrestee released the next day without bail so they can get back to driving again,

Once in a while they make the error of driving through a county like Hendry or Polk get stopped and then it is off to prison for a few years.

I sat on a jury for a DUI trial, the guy had 3 previous DUI’s back in Broward and got the usual slap on the wrist, we found him guilty and the Judge gave him 8 years upstate, the guy actually stated to the judge you cannot do that and away he went to jail awaiting transfer to prison.

I came across another case up in Polk where a guy nailed for DUI (his fifth time) he bragged to the deputies arrest me no problem, I’ll be out tomorrow, they explained he is no longer in Hillsborough where he thought he was, he was in Polk, upon hearing that he collapsed and began wailing sh** I’m going to go to prison, the Deputies assured him he was quite correct.

Splitpair

real_aurgathor You should stop making assumption not based on the most likely reality.

In Dade county it is a fair assumption as it is more than likely, than not, he was uninsured and driving on a suspended DL, without insurance and either a tag that doesn’t belong on his vehicle or has never been returned to the state and therefore is invalid.

The invalid tag is a lesser charge, as placing a tag on a vehicle it is not registered to is a criminal offense, not that it matters in Dade County or anywhere in SE Florida where only 35% of drivers on the road do not have valid DL’s or carry insurance.

Splitpair

real_aurgathor That is correct, but that wasn’t how Tesla advertised it.

But it is how SAE classifies the Tesla system, so per the standards it is not a autopilot it is a ADAS.

real_aurgathor

Splitpair But it is how SAE classifies the Tesla system, so per the standards it is not a autopilot it is a ADAS.

As per judgement, the jury found that irrelevant and went with Tesla’s original claim.

Splitpair

real_aurgathor As per judgement, the jury found that irrelevant and went with Tesla’s original claim.

Which will be overturned on appeal.