After Tesla was hit by an eye-popping $240 million jury verdict involving a deadly car accident in Key Largo, Florida, experts are investigating the potential for more massive jury verdicts in favor of innocent people who are injured or killed by self-driving cars, taxis, or driverless trucks.
This particular case involved a Tesla Model S driving on Autopilot when it ran a stop sign at 60-mph, hit and killed a 22 year-old woman standing next to her parked SUV, and seriously injured her boyfriend.
The key claim in this lawsuit was Tesla’s misleading marketing of the “Autopilot” feature, which lawyers said encouraged drivers to put too much trust into the system.
Instead, lawyers told the jury that Tesla’s Autopilot was really a “driver assist” feature, far short of the self-driving vehicle technology that is implied with a name like “Autopilot.”
The driver of the Tesla Model S, who survived the horrific deadly car accident, testified to the jury that he felt “too comfortable” while using the Autopilot feature during his long daily commute.
The verdict also comes at an unusual time for self-driving vehicles, when federal regulators are scrutinizing over-hyped advertising claims — even as Tesla and Waymo launch driverless robotaxis, and Aurora Innovation runs driverless 18-wheeler semi-trucks on Texas highways.
For years, Tesla has been the front-runner in self-driving vehicle technology for personal use, including the controversial “Autopilot” feature in this lawsuit, as well as Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.
Tesla is not alone, however — other big tech companies are also developing self-driving cars, taxis, pickup trucks, delivery trucks, semi-trucks, and more.
The primary testing-grounds have been highways and city streets in Texas and Arizona, where public ride-hailing robotaxis and trucking services have already been launched by Waymo, Tesla, Aurora Innovation. Other companies and international players may be next.
In addition to Texas and Arizona, these companies have targeted states like California, New York, Georgia, Florida, and others for commercial self-driving vehicle services.
The general public may still be uncomfortable taking a robotaxi or sharing the highway with a driverless car or semi-truck, but despite the obvious safety concerns, big tech companies are rapidly developing and deploying fleets of self-driving vehicles and trucks in Texas.
They have had varying degrees of success, while aiming at what could someday become a trillion-dollar transportation industry that completely transforms the dynamics of trucking and supply chains across vast distances in the U.S., and beyond, eliminating many of the limitations and costs associated with a human trucker at the wheel.
Tech companies claim that autonomous vehicles are the future of transportation, but for now, there are serious safety concerns and legal issues.
For innocent people who are inevitably killed or injured in crashes with autonomous vehicles, the $240 million Tesla Autopilot verdict is just a reminder that big tech companies could be liable for paying out massive settlements or jury awards to innocent victims.
Source: ‘Open The Floodgates’: Why Tesla’s $243 Million Autopilot Crash Verdict Is Such A Big Deal