California Jury Finds Tesla Autopilot Did Not Fail in Crash Case
A California state jury ruled on Friday that Tesla’s semi-autonomous autopilot feature did not fail and cause a car crash, Reuters reports(Opens in a new window).
In the trial, which took place in Los Angeles Superior Court over three weeks, plaintiff Justine Hsu, from LA, had argued that her Tesla Model S swerved into a curb while on Autopilot, resulting in a violent airbag deployment that “fractured” Hsu’s jaw, “knocked out teeth” and caused “nerve damage to her face.”
Hsu had been seeking over $3 million in damages because of alleged defects in the design of Autopilot and the airbag.
Tesla had however argued that they were not liable for the car accident and had said in a court filing that Hsu used Autopilot on city streets despite its user manuals saying not to.
Hsu did not receive any damages for the 2019 car accident. The jury found that Tesla clearly warned the semi-autonomous driving feature was not self-piloted, and that Hsu’s distraction had been to blame. The jury also ruled that the airbag did not fail to perform safely and that Tesla did not intentionally fail to disclose facts.
Donald Slavik, an attorney for Hsu, had said that she had only received a warning to manually gain control of the wheel less than a second before the car struck the curb. Reuters reported that Hsu broke down in tears after the jury’s decision.
Following the favorable verdict for Tesla, juror Mitchell Vasseur, 63, told Reuters that while the jury sympathized with Hsu, they sided with Tesla because “Autopilot never confessed to be self pilot. It’s not a self-driving car.” Vasseur added: “It’s an auto assist and they were adamant about a driver needing to always be aware.”
As Reuters notes, Tesla is facing several other trials linked
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