Tesla has dealt with the role of its assistance system in a US trial “Autopilot” enforced in a fatal accident. The by Elon Musk led car manufacturer was able to convince the jury in Riverside, California that the “autopilot” could not be held responsible for the accident, as the financial service Bloomberg reported from the court on Tuesday.
The case before a California court involved an accident involving a Tesla Model 3. The car of a 37-year-old driver, who was traveling with his fiancée and her son, left the road at 105 kilometers per hour on a highway in Southern California in 2019 , had grazed a palm tree and burst into flames. The driver was killed, the fiancée and her son survived injured.
The passengers sued Tesla, accusing the carmaker of knowing when it sold the vehicle that the autopilot and other safety systems were faulty. When Lee bought the Tesla package with all self-driving capabilities for his Model 3 in 2019 for $6,000, the system was still in the beta phase and therefore not ready for general use. Tesla knew about weaknesses in the system and gave the owners a false sense of security.
Tesla pointed out, among other things, that when using the “Autopilot” system, drivers should keep an eye on the traffic situation and be ready to take control at any time. There is also no solid evidence that the “autopilot” system was activated before the accident.
Tesla vehicles record a variety of data that is often helpful in incident investigations. However, this information is sometimes no longer available after accidents such as fires.
The “autopilot” system is controversial.
While Musk and Tesla emphasize that it makes the vehicles safer, there have been a number of accidents that have also brought US regulators into focus. This includes a series of incidents in which Teslas drove into emergency vehicles parked on the side of the road with their hazard lights on. There are other accident-related lawsuits that are expected to come to trial next year.