Experts lay into Tesla safety in federal autopilot trial

In a significant legal proceeding this week, a federal court in Miami has begun deliberations on a wrongful death lawsuit involving Tesla's Autopilot system, which has been linked to several fatal accidents. This marks the first occasion that a federal court has taken on such a case, despite previous incidents involving the controversial driver assistance technology. Previously, the most notable trial concerning Tesla's Autopilot was a state case in California related to the tragic death of Walter Huang in 2018. Huang's Tesla Model X, operating on Autopilot, collided with a concrete barrier, leading to his untimely demise. The case was settled in April 2024, although the terms remain undisclosed. Recently, Tesla also reached a settlement in a separate lawsuit tied to the 2019 death of Jeremy Banner, who lost his life when his vehicle failed to detect a tractor-trailer on the highway, resulting in a catastrophic collision. Currently, the federal case focuses on a fatal incident from April 2019 in Florida, where a Tesla, driven by George McGee, ran a stop sign and struck Naibel Benavides and Dillon Angulo. Benavides tragically died, while Angulo suffered a severe brain injury. Angulo expressed feeling like a test subject in a dangerous experiment, stating, "This technology was out on the road before it was safe," in a 2023 interview with NBC. Expert witness Missy Cummings, a former fighter pilot and authority on autonomous systems, did not hold back in her testimony. Cummings, who previously faced backlash from Tesla enthusiasts after her 2021 appointment as a senior advisor at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, argued that Tesla's Autopilot is inherently flawed. She stated that the company permits operation in conditions for which the technology is not designed, and criticized the current driver monitoring systems as inadequate for ensuring driver attentiveness. Cummings also recounted her investigative experiences with NHTSA regarding other fatal Tesla incidents, including the 2016 crash that claimed the life of Joshua Brown. Her insights shed light on the ongoing concerns surrounding the safety and reliability of Tesla's Autopilot feature, as the company grapples with increasing scrutiny over its technology's real-world implications.