The amount Tesla must pay in damages over a fatal accident involving its Autopilot driver-assistance system has been set at 243 million dollars (about 350 billion won) by a first-instance court.
On the 20th (local time), Judge Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida rejected both Tesla's motion to set aside the jury verdict and its request for a new trial. Judge Bloom found that the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support the jury's verdict.
Tesla Autopilot feature. The Asia Business Daily database
The lawsuit stemmed from a traffic accident in 2019 involving a Tesla Model S driving on a road in southern Florida. The vehicle, traveling at 62 miles (about 100 kilometers) per hour, drove through an intersection after ignoring a stop sign and a red flashing signal, then crashed into a sport utility vehicle (SUV) parked on the roadside and struck a couple. A 22-year-old woman was killed and her boyfriend was seriously injured.
The bereaved family argued that the Autopilot system, which was operating at the time of the accident, failed to properly detect and respond to road boundaries and obstacles, and that Tesla did not adequately inform drivers of such risks associated with Autopilot. The driver of the vehicle testified that he had bent down to look for a dropped mobile phone and believed the system would brake if there was an obstacle ahead.
Tesla claimed that the negligent driver was entirely at fault, but the jury sided with the plaintiff.
Tesla is expected to appeal the ruling. In August last year, when the verdict was delivered, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk responded on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) regarding whether the company would appeal the case by saying, "We will."
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