Tesla Is Heading To Trial Over Two Deaths Involving Autopilot

Elon Musk's Tesla Inc TSLA is preparing for its first of two courtroom battles over a fatality involving its Autopilot system, and it comes on the heels of a 45-minute livestream the CEO posted on X last Friday showcasing Tesla's v12 Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta.

The trials will examine the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot technology and scrutinize Musk’s role in the development and marketing of the system.

A Trail Of Accidents: Tesla’s Autopilot system has been implicated in some 736 accidents and 17 fatalities in the U.S. since 2019, Benzinga previously reported. The uptick in incidents associated with Autopilot placed the tech firmly under the spotlight, with regulatory agencies intensifying scrutiny.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated investigations into several accidents, despite Tesla’s claim the vehicles using Autopilot technology experienced only 0.18 accidents per million miles in 2022, compared to the U.S. national average of 1.53.

Two Trials Loom: The first trial is slated for mid-September in a California state court and involves the 2019 death of Model 3 owner Micah Lee, according to a Reuters report.

The car’s Autopilot system is alleged to have caused the vehicle to veer off a highway east of Los Angeles, resulting in a fatal collision with a palm tree, according to the civil lawsuit filed against Tesla by the passengers and Lee’s estate.

That crash, which Reuters was the first to report on, killed Lee and seriously injured two other passengers, including a then-8-year-old boy who was disemboweled.

A second trial will take place in early October in a Florida state court, which stems from another 2019 crash where a Model 3, owned by Stephen Banner, drove under an 18-wheeler, resulting in Banner’s death.

Banner’s attorneys argue that internal emails indicate that Musk acts as the Autopilot team’s “de facto leader,” suggesting a high level of involvement by the CEO in the development of the tech, Reuters said.

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Musk's Role Under Scrutiny: Both cases challenge Musk’s hands-on role in the development of Autopilot, the report said. According to pretrial documents, internal emails suggested that Musk personally leads the group behind the development of the tech, which added another layer to the trials.

The Tesla CEO consistently marketed Autopilot and its ‘FSD’ software as nearly autonomous, Reuters noted, despite evidence suggesting the technology requires significant human oversight.

Tesla denied liability and attributed the accidents to driver error.

TSLA Price action: Shares of Tesla are trading 0.28% lower to $2237.93, according to Benzinga Pro.

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Photo: Model 3, courtesy Tesla Inc.