The American manufacturer of electric cars Tesla will have to answer for the first time in court from mid-September for fatal accidents involving its autopilot-enabled vehicles. In two different procedures, it must become clear whether a failure of the autopilot was the cause of the accident and who is liable for it. Tesla denies liability and blames drivers. The autopilot is safe when it is supervised by humans.
For the e-car manufacturer, much depends on the processes that are about to begin, and others will follow. Only if buyers trust the system are they willing to pay up to $15,000 per vehicle for the software.
The first case, which will be heard in federal court in California on September 15, concerns a Tesla Model 3. The car went off the road at more than 100 kilometers per hour on a highway east of Los Angeles in 2019 and collided with a palm tree right. and caught fire. The driver was killed and the two passengers, including an eight-year-old boy, were seriously injured. The passengers and the executor of the deceased driver filed a lawsuit. It is alleged that Tesla knew when the car was sold that the autopilot and other safety systems were not working properly.
Crashed under the trailer, roof ripped off
A second case, due in Florida federal court Oct. 6, involves an accident in which a 2019 Tesla Model 3 was hit by a trailer north of Miami when a large 18-wheel truck spun onto the road. The roof of the car was shaved off and the driver was killed. The widow accuses Tesla that the autopilot did not brake or intervene in the steering to avoid the accident.
In court documents, the Elon Musk-led automaker emphasizes that drivers should keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. “There are no self-driving cars on the road today,” the company said. The civil lawsuits are designed to provide new evidence of what Musk and others at Tesla knew about the true capabilities of Autopilot, the software of which has been repeatedly advertised as “fully self-driving.” Musk himself has repeatedly praised the autopilot, now renamed X, in short messages on Twitter.
A matter of credibility
For Musk, the proceedings are a test of the credibility of his technology promises and thus of Tesla’s future viability. Investors are betting that the e-car specialist will be able to earn money on a large scale with self-driving fleets, for example for taxis or driver services.
So far, the cases against Tesla have involved personal injury, not death. In April, Tesla won a lawsuit in Los Angeles arguing that the technology, despite being called “autopilot” and “fully self-driving,” must be controlled by the driver. The case involved an accident in which a Model S vehicle hit a curb, injuring the driver. The jury found that the company said drivers had been warned about the system and held responsible for carelessness.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
