Musk, Tesla Knew About Autopilot Defect, But Still Let Vehicles Run: US Judge

This ruling marks a major setback for Musk-owned Tesla, particularly in the wake of the company's success in winning two product liability trials related to the Autopilot driver assistant system in California.

In a new ruling, Judge Reid Scott said  that there is substantial evidence suggesting that Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other executives were aware of a flaw in the Autopilot system of the company's vehicles, the media has reported. Despite this knowledge, they allegedly permitted the operation of these cars in an unsafe manner. Scott's decision, which has not been previously disclosed, allows the plaintiff in a lawsuit related to a fatal crash to advance to trial, says a report by news agency Reuters.

Judge Scott's recent decision in the Palm Beach County Circuit Court allows the family of a man who lost his life in a collision while his Tesla's Autopilot was active to proceed to trial. 

The origins of the Florida lawsuit comes from a 2019 collision north of Miami. In this incident, Stephen Banner's Tesla Model 3 collided with the trailer of an 18-wheeler big rig truck that had turned onto the road, resulting in the shearing off of the Tesla's roof and the tragic death of Banner.

This ruling marks a major setback for Elon Musk-owned Tesla, particularly in the wake of the company's success in winning two product liability trials related to the Autopilot driver assistant system in the US state of California earlier this year. As of Tuesday, no comment from a Tesla spokesperson was immediately available, the Reuters report added.

University of South Carolina law professor Bryant Walker Smith highlighted the significance of the judge's evidence summary, noting that it indicates "alarming inconsistencies" between Tesla's internal knowledge and the information conveyed in its marketing.

"This opinion opens the door for a public trial in which the judge seems inclined to admit a lot of testimony and other evidence that could be pretty awkward for Tesla and its CEO," Smith was quoted as saying by the Reuters report.

"And now the result of that trial could be a verdict with punitive damages."

To recall, last month, Musk-owned Tesla secured a significant win in the first US trial around allegations that its Autopilot driver assistant feature contributed to a fatality. This came  amidst a backdrop of multiple lawsuits and federal investigations revolving around the same technology. Notably, this was Tesla's second notable legal victory this year, as juries have previously declined to find flaws in its software.

Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, highlighted by CEO Musk as pivotal to the company's future, have concurrently attracted regulatory and legal scrutiny amid ongoing testing and deployment.