$242 million: Tesla fined heavily for fatal crash linked to its "Autopilot"

US carmaker Tesla was found partially liable on Friday, August 1, for a fatal crash in Florida in April 2019 involving one of its vehicles, a Model S, equipped with the "Autopilot" option , according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

An eight-member jury decided, following a trial in a federal civil court in Miami, to award the plaintiffs a total compensation of $328 million (282 million euros), explained Darren Jeffrey Rousso of the Rousso Boumel law firm, which represented the rights holders.

Tesla is expected to owe $242 million (€209 million), Rousso said.

"Justice has been served. The jury heard all the evidence and reached a just and fair verdict for our clients," he said.

According to the lawsuit filed against Tesla in April 2021, the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV in which Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo were traveling on April 25, 2019 in Key Largo, Florida, was struck at full speed by the Model S after it failed to be detected by the "Autopilot" driver assistance system .

The young woman, 22 years old at the time of her death, was thrown several dozen meters, the complaint continues. Dillon Angulo was injured, but no details on his condition are available at this time.

"Today's verdict is wrong and only sets auto safety back and threatens Tesla's and the (auto) industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology," the automaker said.

He said he intends to appeal "given the significant legal errors and irregularities during the trial."

The jury "concluded that the driver was largely responsible for the tragic accident," but the evidence in the case "proved that the driver was solely responsible because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator—which deactivated Autopilot—while trying to retrieve the phone he had dropped, and without his eyes on the street," Tesla argued.

"No car in 2019, and none today, could have avoided the accident," the manufacturer insisted.

"It is a fiction concocted by the plaintiffs' lawyers to blame the car when the driver - from day one - acknowledged and accepted his responsibility" in the accident, he added.