{"id":51160,"date":"2023-08-30T15:22:40","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T15:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/focus-tesla-braces-for-its-first-trial-involving-autopilot-fatality"},"modified":"2023-08-30T15:22:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T15:22:40","slug":"focus-tesla-braces-for-its-first-trial-involving-autopilot-fatality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/focus-tesla-braces-for-its-first-trial-involving-autopilot-fatality","title":{"rendered":"Focus: Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Tesla Inc (TSLA) is set to defend itself for the first time at trial against allegations that failure of its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to death, in what will likely be a major test of Chief Executive Elon Musk\u2019s assertions about the technology.<\/p>\n

Self-driving capability is central to Tesla\u2019s financial future, according to Musk, whose own reputation as an engineering leader is being challenged with allegations by plaintiffs in one of two lawsuits that he personally leads the group behind technology that failed.<\/p>\n

Wins by Tesla could raise confidence and sales for the software, which costs up to $15,000 per vehicle. Tesla faces two trials in quick succession, with more to follow.<\/p>\n

The first, scheduled for mid-September in a California state court, is a civil lawsuit containing allegations that the Autopilot system caused owner Micah Lee\u2019s Model 3 to suddenly veer off a highway east of Los Angeles at 65 miles per hour, strike a palm tree and burst into flames, all in the span of seconds.<\/p>\n

The 2019 crash, which has not been previously reported, killed Lee and seriously injured his two passengers, including a then-8-year old boy who was disemboweled.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed against Tesla by the passengers and Lee\u2019s estate, accuses Tesla of knowing that Autopilot and other safety systems were defective when it sold the car.<\/p>\n

The second trial, set for early October in a Florida state court, arose out of a 2019 crash north of Miami where owner Stephen Banner\u2019s Model 3 drove under the trailer of an 18-wheeler big rig truck that had pulled into the road, shearing off the Tesla\u2019s roof and killing Banner.<\/p>\n

Autopilot failed to brake, steer or do anything to avoid the collision, according to the lawsuit filed by Banner\u2019s wife. Tesla denied liability for both accidents, blamed driver error and said Autopilot is safe when monitored by humans.<\/p>\n

Tesla said in court documents that drivers must pay attention to the road and keep their hands on the steering wheel. \u201cThere are no self-driving cars on the road today,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

The civil proceedings will likely reveal new evidence about what Musk and other company officials knew about Autopilot\u2019s capabilities \u2013 and any possible deficiencies. Banner\u2019s attorneys, for instance, argue in a pretrial court filing that internal emails show Musk is the Autopilot team\u2019s \u201cde facto leader\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tesla and Musk did not respond to Reuters\u2019 emailed questions for this article, but Musk has made no secret of his involvement in self-driving software engineering, often tweeting about his test-driving of a Tesla equipped with \u201cFull Self-Driving\u201d software.<\/p>\n

He has for years promised that Tesla would achieve self-driving capability only to miss his own targets. Tesla won a bellwether trial in Los Angeles in April with a strategy of saying that it tells drivers that its technology requires human monitoring, despite the \u201cAutopilot\u201d and \u201cFull Self-Driving\u201d names.<\/p>\n

The case was about an accident where a Model S swerved into the curb and injured its driver, and jurors told Reuters after the verdict that they believed Tesla warned drivers about its system and driver distraction was to blame.<\/p>\n

The stakes for Tesla are much higher in the September and October trials, the first of a series related to Autopilot this year and next, because people died.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Tesla backs up a lot of wins in these cases, I think they\u2019re going to get more favorable settlements in other cases,\u201d said Matthew Wansley, a former General Counsel of nuTonomy, an automated driving startup and Associate Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, \u201ca big loss for Tesla \u2013 especially with a big damages award\u201d could \u201cdramatically shape the narrative going forward,\u201d said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina.<\/p>\n

In court filings, the company has argued that Lee consumed alcohol before getting behind the wheel and that it is not clear whether Autopilot was on at the time of crash.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Michaels, an attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment on Tesla\u2019s specific arguments, but said \u201cwe\u2019re fully aware of Tesla\u2019s false claims including their shameful attempts to blame the victims for their known defective autopilot system.<\/p>\n

\u201d In the Florida case, Banner\u2019s attorneys also filed a motion arguing punitive damages were warranted.<\/p>\n

The attorneys have deposed several Tesla executives and received internal documents from the company that they said show Musk and engineers were aware of, and did not fix, shortcomings.<\/p>\n

In one deposition, former executive Christopher Moore testified there are limitations to Autopilot, saying it \u201cis not designed to detect every possible hazard or every possible obstacle or vehicle that could be on the road,\u201d according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters.<\/p>\n

In 2016, a few months after a fatal accident where a Tesla crashed into a semi-trailer truck, Musk told reporters that the automaker was updating Autopilot with improved radar sensors that likely would have prevented the fatality.<\/p>\n

But Adam (Nicklas) Gustafsson, a Tesla Autopilot systems engineer who investigated both accidents in Florida, said that in the almost three years between that 2016 crash and Banner\u2019s accident, no changes were made to Autopilot\u2019s systems to account for cross-traffic, according to court documents submitted by plaintiff lawyers.<\/p>\n

The lawyers tried to blame the lack of change on Musk. \u201cElon Musk has acknowledged problems with the Tesla autopilot system not working properly,\u201d according to plaintiffs\u2019 documents.<\/p>\n

Former Autopilot engineer Richard Baverstock, who was also deposed, stated that \u201calmost everything\u201d he did at Tesla was done at the request of \u201cElon,\u201d according to the documents.<\/p>\n

Tesla filed an emergency motion in court late on Wednesday seeking to keep deposition transcripts of its employees and other documents secret. Banner\u2019s attorney, Lake \u201cTrey\u201d Lytal III, said he would oppose the motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about our judicial system is Billion Dollar Corporations can only keep secrets for so long,\u201d he wrote in a text message.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Tesla Inc (TSLA) is set to defend itself for the first time at trial against allegations that failure of its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to death, in what will likely be a major test of Chief Executive Elon Musk\u2019s assertions about the technology. Self-driving capability is central to Tesla\u2019s financial future, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":51159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,31],"tags":[760,763,758,3472],"class_list":["post-51160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda","tag-tsla"],"yoast_head":"\nFocus: Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/focus-tesla-braces-for-its-first-trial-involving-autopilot-fatality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Focus: Tesla braces for its first trial involving Autopilot fatality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Rwanda. 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