A jury will decide whether Tesla is partly to blame after a young woman was killed by a car on autopilot. Naibel Benavides was sent 75ft into the air by the Model S Tesla, which allegedly drove through red lights and a stop sign at 70mph.
Lawyers argue that the driver assistance feature in the sedan should have warned the driver and braked before the collision. Ms Benavides had been stargazing in Florida with her boyfriend, who was also seriously injured in the collision. Her body was later discovered in a wooded area.
Driver George McGee reached a separate settlement with the victims’ families. However, Tesla claims the incident in 2019 was caused by the driver reaching for his mobile phone.
In a statement, Elon Musk’s company said: “The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla’s Autopilot technology.
“Instead, like so many unfortunate accidents since cell phones were invented, this was caused by a distracted driver,” Sky News reports.
In 2023, 2.3 million Tesla vehicles were recalled amid fears that autopilot was not sufficiently alerting drivers to dangers. Last year, it was reported that many drivers were turning off the feature altogether due to fears about safety defects.
Improvements to the company’s driver assistance and partial self-driving features have been made in recent years.
After the jury was selected on Monday, a lawyer representing the victims said: “Evidence will show for years before and after this crime, Tesla ignored warnings.”
“This is a case about shared responsibility. Tesla will take no responsibility for the failures of their Autopilot system. Evidence will show that every actor needs a stage and Tesla set the stage for the preventable actions that bring us here.”
Elon Musk has previously publicly declared that Tesla vehicles were “safer than a human”, and the jury was reportedly told this will be presented as evidence.
The Express has approached Tesla for comment.