According to the New York Times, a fatal car accident involving Tesla's autonomous driving system Autopilot that occurred in 2019 is currently being tried in the United States. The owner of the car involved in the crash testified in federal court on Monday that Autopilot failed to warn him of an impending accident and failed to activate the brakes.


2019 fatal accident scene

The car owner, George Brian McGee, was driving his new Tesla Model S on a dim two-lane road in South Florida. Unexpectedly, his cell phone fell to the ground and he lowered his head to pick it up. At that moment, he didn't notice that there was a T-junction at the end of the road, and there was an SUV parked on the other side with two people standing next to it.

As a result, neither he nor Autopilot applied the brakes, and the Tesla hit the SUV at 62 miles per hour (about 100 kilometers per hour), killing a 22-year-old woman on the spot and seriously injuring her boyfriend.

McGee testified Monday in the civil case in Miami federal court that he had a duty to keep his eyes straight ahead even when Autopilot was engaged. But he also said that he regarded Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system as his "co-pilot" and believed that it had the ability to avoid such an accident.

“I thought it would help me if I made a mistake,” said McGee, 48, a partner at a Florida private equity firm. “It didn’t alert me to cars and pedestrians ahead, and it didn’t hit the brakes.”

Tesla view

Tesla's lawyers argued that McGee was fully responsible for the accident. "He looked down for his phone and then sprinted across the intersection," Joel H. Smith, an attorney with the law firm Bowman and Brooke, said in opening statements. "This could happen to any car, at any time. It had nothing to do with Autopilot."

Court documents and other testimony show that before the accident, McGee's foot was on the accelerator pedal, causing his car to reach speeds of 62 mph, exceeding the 45 mph speed limit that Autopilot would normally obey in the area of ​​the accident, Cadesold near Largo Key. Furthermore, depressing the accelerator pedal partially disables Autopilot's ability to brake when it detects obstacles or other vehicles.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Naibel Benavides, the woman killed in the accident, and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages from Tesla and are trying to convince a jury that Tesla was partially responsible for the crash.

The lawsuit alleges that Autopilot was defective and caused the vehicle to fail to brake or warn McGee of an impending collision. The plaintiffs also argue that the system's design is flawed because it distracts drivers.

Judge Beth Bloom previously ruled in this case that the plaintiffs could seek punitive damages from Tesla. "A reasonable jury might find that Tesla demonstrated an egregious disregard for human life in order to develop its products and maximize profits," she said in a recent order.

Reputation impact

The case poses a significant risk to Tesla, as the company and its CEO, Elon Musk, have built their brand on the idea that their cars can drive almost autonomously. Tesla has launched a more advanced version of Autopilot called "Full Self-Driving" (FSD), and last month started a limited self-driving taxi pilot project in Austin, Texas.

Sam Fiorani, an analyst at market research firm AutoForecast Solutions, said that if lost, the case could damage Tesla's reputation, at least in the short term, and hit its sales and stock price.

“All of Tesla’s share price value is based on expectations for the future, and the future is autonomous driving,” Fiorini said.

Additionally, Tesla's car sales have been declining in recent months, in part due to public antipathy toward Musk as he has become one of the leading backers of conservative parties around the world. He was once President Trump's closest adviser and funder, but the two have recently fallen out.