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A federal judge in Miami denied Tesla’s
bid to toss out a $243 million verdict in a lawsuit that requires the automaker to compensate the family of a 2019 fatal Autopilot crash victim as well as a survivor.
The collision, which occurred in Key Largo, Florida, killed 22-year-old Naibel Benavides and severely injured her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo. Tesla owner George McGee was driving his Model S sedan while using the company’s Enhanced Autopilot, a partially automated driving system. During the trial, McGee said that when he dropped his phone while driving and scrambled to pick it up, he thought the system would brake if an obstacle was in the way.
McGee’s car instead 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.
