This week, Tesla defeated a lawsuit blaming the company’s Autopilot for a 2019 accident, reports . On Friday, a California state court jury found driver assistance software not to blame in a Model S crash that left the driver of the vehicle with a broken jaw, missing teeth and nerve damage. Justine Hsu sued Tesla in 2020 after her EV veered into a center median on a city street in Los Angeles while autopilot was engaged. She sought more than $3 million in damages, alleging defects in Tesla’s airbag software and design.
Tesla denied responsibility for the accident. He argued that Hsu used autopilot on a city street, a practice the company warns against in the software’s user manual. The jury awarded Hsu no damages and said the automaker did not intentionally fail to disclose facts about Autopilot. As Reuters Notes, the test is believed to be one of the first involving driver assist mode. While the result will not be “legally binding in other cases,” it is expected to inform how lawyers deal with future technology-related incidents.
The outcome of the case is unlikely to alleviate the scrutiny Tesla already faces over its claims about Autopilot and “fully autonomous driving” software. Earlier in the year, the automaker confirmed that the US Department of Justice had been linked to the two features. The company is also under investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for Autopilot collisions involving .
