Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Tesla Hit With $243M Verdict Over Autopilot Crash

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Tesla Hit With $243M Verdict Over Autopilot Crash · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company and Neurolink. I'm your host Will Walden.
• 0:17
  Tesla lost a $243 million jury verdict this week over a crash
• 0:22
  involving its autopilot system. The case centered on a 2018
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  incident where a Model 3 slammed into a tree in Florida, killing
• 0:29
  its driver and its passenger. Now, the jury found Tesla liable
• 0:33
  for a defect in the Autopilot system, raising sharp questions
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  about how the company has marketed and deploy its semi
• 0:41
  automated driving features. Now, the jury concluded that
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  Tesla knew about a problem in Autopilot steering and failed to
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  fix it. And the plaintiff's attorneys
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  show that the Model 3 veered off the road at 69 mph, with no
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  evidence the driver braked or tried to steer away.
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  Tesla argued the driver was intoxicated and misused the
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  system, but jurors rejected an offence.
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  The verdict shows that the company's Full Self Driving
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  branding can carry consequences in court when something goes
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  wrong. Tesla has long described its
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  Autopilot and Full Self Driving software as capable of
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  navigating highways, changing lanes and recognizing traffic
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  signals, while also insisting that drivers must stay alert and
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  keep their hands on the wheel. That tension, selling the dream
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  of autonomy while shifting responsibility to the human
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  behind the wheel, is now becoming harder to maintain as
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  legal scrutiny intensifies. This case became one of the
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  first where a jury directly weighted the role of Tesla's
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  automation in a fatal crash and issued A9 figure.
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  Penalty wasn't a class action or a regulatory fine, though.
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  It was a clear verdict on a single crash, but the price tag
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  large enough to sting. The jury awarded $63,000,000 in
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  compensatory damages and another $180 million in punitive damages
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  to the family of Barrett Riley, who died in a crash.
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  The ruling came after just a day of deliberation and the jury
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  focused on a software defect Tesla had allegedly identified
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  internally, but they failed to patch this.
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  That detail carried weight because it went beyond marketing
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  hype and touched on product responsibility.
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  The known bug continues to contribute to crashes.
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  The legal risk goes from speculative to measurable.
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  The Tesla now faces a precedent that could affect other lawsuits
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  pending in multiple states. And Tesla has repeatedly told
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  regulators and the public that Autopilot is safe when used as
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  intended. But lawsuits like this one are
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  forcing courts to determine whether Tesla's definitions of
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  intended use are actually realistic.
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  And in this case, the plaintiff argued that the system
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  encouraged a false sense of safety, made it easier for
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  drivers to disengage from control, and the jury agreed
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  with them. The company has already faced
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  investigations from the National Highway Traffic Safety
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  Administration, which in December said Autopilot
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  contributed to a pattern of crashes involved stationary
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  emergency vehicles, and Tesla issued a recall affecting 2
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  million vehicles after that probe.
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  And in this latest case, though, the jury saw a pattern of
• 3:23
  technical failure and corporate neglect, not just one driver's
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  mistake. Now, the court heard that
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  Barrett Riley had a speed limiter installed in the car by
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  his parents after a prior incident, but it had been
• 3:35
  removed during the service appointment at Tesla, and that
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  removal happened without notifying the parents.
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  The plaintiff said the combination of Autopilot's known
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  issues and the service center's actions contributed directly to
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  the fatal crash. Tesla said it would appeal the
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  verdict, calling the decision unjustified.
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  But appeals don't erase juries. The ruling creates a public and
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  legal record that Tesla failed to take corrective action after
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  discovering a flaw. That's a stronger claim than
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  mislabeling a product. It shifts the conversation from
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  over promising to under protecting the people that buy
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  their cars and under protecting the other people that are on the
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  highways. Now.
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  This case may affect how other Autopilot related deaths and
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  injuries are litigated in the future.
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  Families involved in these suits now have an example of a jury
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  siding against Tesla and assigning real financial
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  liability. Lawyers will focus on the same
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  internal documents, known bugs, and removal of safety features
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  during the service. Now, this verdict also creates a
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  pressure on Tesla's messaging. Elon Musk has frequently posted
• 4:43
  that Tesla's self driving software is safer than a human
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  driver, citing internal data. But jurors don't just look at
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  the charts, they look at who knew what and when, and whether
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  any of that knowledge could have saved a person's life.
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  This trial narrowed in on one crash, one car and 1 flaw and it
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  still reached a quarter billion dollar result.
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  The number sends a message that the Tesla's responsibility
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  doesn't end with their software or with them shipping a vehicle.
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  It never ends as long as that vehicle is on the road.
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  Now, Tesla promises that their software will be better than any
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  human and relies on software doing more than any other
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  carmaker allows right now, and they have to be held accountable
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  when that software doesn't function properly and kills
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  people. That's what the jury found out,
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  that's what the verdict was, and that's why Tesla and Elon Musk
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  will be paying the money to these poor people.
• 5:55
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 5:56
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 5:58
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  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.