The lawsuit adds to growing scrutiny of Tesla’s driver assistant systems Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
A judge in Florida found in November 2023 that there was reasonable evidence that Elon Musk and other Tesla managers knew Autopilot was defective and that a case involving the fatal crash of Stephen Banner while using this feature could go to trial, and the plaintiff could seek punitive damages. The trial has not yet happened.
Several lawsuits are still working their way through the court system. Still, they are all individual cases and are not class actions or multidistrict litigation (MDL), when cases are grouped so one judge can make decisions that affect all cases together. It’s too early to make sweeping proclamations about the trends in the lawsuits that have been filed, but Tesla thus far has convinced two juries that they are not responsible for the death or injury of Tesla drivers.
Tesla ‘Full Self-driving’ was on during fatal crash with motorcyclist, police says
Now, a new police report following access to the Tesla’s vehicle data claims that the vehicle was actually using Tesla’s latest ‘Full Self-Driving’ system.
The driver was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide because of his lack of attention (via Reuters)
Now I’m sure there was contributory negligence on the driver’s part. Personally I don’t believe FSD is ready. YMMV