Tesla just won an important civil lawsuit related to liability for a crash that occurred on an Autopilot-enabled vehicle.
The crash killed the driver and Tesla owner, and severely injured two passengers, including a child.
Civil litigation has longed seemed like the big risk Tesla has been running – the US is a very litigious country, Tesla stock is amazingly valuable, and so the company seems like a natural target for plaintiffs lawyers.
I’m frankly surprised it’s taken this long to get to a major Autopilot litigation result, so I wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg or if the number of claims really is a trickle.
This recent result indicates that Tesla can beat these claims, but the problem is that Tesla basically has to beat them every time, since any one jury can award tremendous punitive damages.
I kind of suspect the most problematic situation for Tesla (or any other automotive ADAS system, I don’t think this problem is necessarily unique to Tesla) will be fatalities outside the vehicle – pedestrians or passengers in other vehicles, for example.
David Silver 