A Tesla vehicle passes the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse as jury selection began in reference to allegations regarding the security of Tesla’s autopilot system on July 14, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Tesla is facing a vital verdict in a private injury trial over a fatal Autopilot crash in 2019, the primary time Elon Musk’s automaker has been in front of a jury on such a matter in federal court.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs on Thursday asked the jury to award damages of around $345 million. That features $109 million in compensatory damages and $236 million in punitive damages. The trial within the Southern District of Florida began on July 14.
The suit centers around who shoulders the blame for a deadly crash that occurred in 2019 in Key Largo, Florida. A Tesla owner named George McGee was driving his Model S electric sedan while using the corporate’s Enhanced Autopilot, a partially automated driving system.
While driving, McGee dropped his cell phone that he was using and scrambled to choose it up. He said in the course of the trial that he believed Enhanced Autopilot would brake if an obstacle was in the way in which. He accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 miles per hour, hitting a close-by empty parked automotive and its owners, who were standing on the opposite side of their vehicle.
Naibel Benavides, who was 22, died on the scene from injuries sustained within the crash. Her body was discovered about 75 feet away from the purpose of impact. Her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, survived but suffered multiple broken bones, a traumatic brain injury and psychological effects.
The plaintiffs have included Benavides’ surviving members of the family, and Angulo, who testified within the trial. Angulo is in search of compensation for his medical expenses and pain and suffering, while Benavides’ estate is suing for wrongful death, pain and suffering, and other punitive damages.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argued that Tesla’s partially automated driving systems, marketed as Autopilot on the time, had dangerous defects, which must have been known and stuck by the corporate, and that use of Autopilot must have been limited to roads where it could perform safely.
Additionally they argued that Musk and Tesla made false statements to customers, shareholders and the general public, overstating the security advantages and capabilities of Autopilot, which encouraged drivers to overly depend on it.
In opening arguments and throughout the trial, the plaintiffs’ attorneys and expert witnesses cited a litany of Musk’s past guarantees about Autopilot and Tesla’s autonomous vehicle technology. The lawyers said
Tesla attorneys countered in court that the corporate had communicated directly with customers about easy methods to use Autopilot and other features, and that McGee’s driving was in charge for the collision. They said in closing arguments that Tesla works to develop technology to avoid wasting drivers’ lives, and that a ruling against the EV maker would send the mistaken message.
The Benavides family had previously sued McGee and settled with him. McGee was charged in October 2019 with careless driving and didn’t contest the fees.
While Tesla has typically been in a position to settle cases or move Autopilot-related suits into arbitration and out of the general public eye, Judge Beth Bloom within the Miami court wrote, in an order in early July, that the case could move ahead to trial.
“An affordable jury could find that Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing their product and maximizing profit,” she wrote in that order.
For closing arguments on Thursday, the Benavides family and Angulo were within the courtroom. They looked away from screens anytime a video or picture of the scene of the crash was displayed.
— NBC News’ Maria Piñero reported from Miami.
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