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Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

cnbc.com

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Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#81

Post by BonoboIO »

al_borland wrote: post #79

If I were running a car company, I may decide to stop development on assistive features and remove any that exist from future models. The way people are using them, and the courts are punishing the companies for adding these safety features, is it worth it to them? Not having them would also bring down the base price on vehicles, which seems to be the primary complaint from people right now.

Tesla hid evidence and was probably punished by the jury and I hardly feel sorry for Tesla. Maybe next time they will not do that, but I doubt it. Transparency was never a thing baked into the Tesla Musk DNA.

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2025/aug/01/jury-orders-tesla-t...

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#82

Post by scbrg »

metabagel wrote: post #51
bangaladore wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I don't understand how. > A navigation mechanism, as on an aircraft, that automatically maintains a preset course. Applies here. As far as I can tell the system did do exactly that. But the details of the actual event are unclear (I've heard parked car but also just hitting the back of another car?)

It’s an emergent technology. The onus is on Tesla to be crystal clear about capabilities, and consistently so. People might quite reasonably infer that something which is labeled as “auto-“ or “automatic” doesn’t require supervision.

Such as automobile?

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#84

Post by naet »

SilverElfin wrote: post #6

> While driving, McGee dropped his mobile phone that he was using and scrambled to pick it up. He said during the trial that he believed Enhanced Autopilot would brake if an obstacle was in the way. His Model S accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 miles per hour, hitting a nearby empty parked car and its owners, who were standing on the other side of their vehicle. Hard for me to see this as anything b…

The argument is that if the driver was in a different vehicle he would have done just that, pulled over and picked it up, but because he believed the Tesla was capable of driving safely on it's own he didn't do so.

Normally I turn the steering wheel when I want to turn my car. If you sold me a car and told me it had technology to make turns automatically without my input then I might let go of the wheel instead of turning it, something I would never have done otherwise. If I then don't turn and slam straight into a wall, am I at fault for trusting what I was sold to be true?

If the driver has heard that their Tesla is capable of autonomous driving, and therefore trusts it to drive itself, there may be a fair argument that Tesla shares in that blame. If it's a completely unreasonable belief (like me believing my 1998 Toyota is capable of self driving) then that argument falls apart. But if Tesla has promoted their self driving feature as being fully functional, used confusing descriptions like "Full Self-Driving", etc, it might become a pretty reasonable argument.

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#85

Post by metabagel »

SoftTalker wrote: post #59
metabagel wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dictionary definition for Americans is: > A navigation mechanism, as on an aircraft, that automatically maintains a preset course. https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=automatic+pilot Note that “autopilot” and “automatic pilot” are synonyms. https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Autopilot An autopilot is supposed to be an automatic system, which doesn’t imply supervision. https://ahdictionary.com/wor…

Notably, an aircraft autopilot will NOT avoid hitting anything in its path, or slow down for it, or react to it in any way. It's just that the sky is very big and other aircraft are very small, so random collisions are extremely unlikely.

Airplanes and automobiles differ in a number of ways.

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#86

Post by nielsbot »

SoftTalker wrote: post #63
SilverElfin wrote: post #6

> While driving, McGee dropped his mobile phone that he was using and scrambled to pick it up. He said during the trial that he believed Enhanced Autopilot would brake if an obstacle was in the way. His Model S accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 miles per hour, hitting a nearby empty parked car and its owners, who were standing on the other side of their vehicle. Hard for me to see this as anything b…

And why was his mobile phone in his hand to drop, if he was driving? Most states have laws against mobile device usage while driving, and it was never a responsible thing to do even before the laws were enacted.

Sure--dangerous and wrong. Despite that, Autopilot was driving at the time.

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#87

Post by metabagel »

scbrg wrote: post #82
metabagel wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s an emergent technology. The onus is on Tesla to be crystal clear about capabilities, and consistently so. People might quite reasonably infer that something which is labeled as “auto-“ or “automatic” doesn’t require supervision.

Such as automobile?

Automobiles are self-propelled, not self-navigating. They don't rely on horses to pull them.

automobile: self-propelled (self moving)

autopilot: self-piloting (self navigating)

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=automobile

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#88

Post by tantalor »

Important: headline was just updated,

> CORRECTION: Tesla must pay portion of $329 million in damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

This was added,

> The jury determined Tesla should be held 33% responsible for the fatal crash. That means the automaker would be responsible for about $42.5 million in compensatory damages.

Re: Tesla must pay portion of $329M damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

#90

Post by polotics »

guywithahat wrote: post #4

> The company must pay $329 million in damages to victims and survivor, including compensatory and punitive damages. > A Tesla owner named George McGee was driving his Model S electric sedan while using the company’s Enhanced Autopilot, a partially automated driving system. > While driving, McGee dropped his mobile phone that he was using and scrambled to pick it up. He said during the trial that he believed Enhanced…

329 million too high? if you had the money and handing it over would save your life, would you rather keep the money as a corpse?
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