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Tesla loses lawsuit and must pay more than $200 Million

SavannahMann

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One of those Autopilot crashes made it to court, and the Jury found Tesla both Responsible and Liable. The Driver activated the Autopilot, and it just cruised on down the dark road, straight through a flashing light stop sign, across the T intersection without slowing down, and straight into a parked Tahoe with a young couple staring at the stars. One died, one is disabled for life.

Elon Musk’s Tesla ordered to pay $243M in deadly Autopilot crash case: ‘This will open the floodgates’

The decision ends a four-year long case remarkable not just in its outcome but that it even made it to trial.
nypost.com

Tesla has said they will appeal. Well yes they will. But this will, according to a Lawyer who was not involved in the case, open the floodgates to more lawsuits.

Once it is done successfully it will be done again and again.
 

A lady in China with a similar situation not only lost her suit, Tesla has successfully SUED HER for damaging their reputation and she is now liable for millions.
 

Oh my God.


 

Good. Fully automated cars are one of the most overrated inventions ever. If one of them is at fault for a wreck, its creator needs to pay the bill.
 
What a tragedy. They need to get it to not do this if they're going to put it on the road. $243 million is a lot but can't begin to compensate for the damage. There should be regulations and jail if they're violated.
 

Correction.

"The decision ends a four-year long case remarkable not just in its outcome but that it even made it to trial. Many similar cases against Tesla have been dismissed and, when that didn’t happen, settled by the company to avoid the spotlight of a trial."
 
$243 million seems really excessive for one fatality and one disability.
Phys251 said:
Good. Fully automated cars are one of the most overrated inventions ever.
Click to expand...
One of the best inventions ever. 95% of automobile fatalities are caused by human error, and almost all of them can and will be solved by self-driving cars. Self-driving cars aren't perfect yet but they are already a lot better than human drivers (thinking specifically about Waymo and not Tesla here, although probably Tesla too). Stifling innovation in this area would not only lead to 30,000+ excess deaths every year, it would also make our cities less livable and increase commute times. They should pay when they make mistakes just like human drivers, but excessively punitive amounts like this case serve no purpose but to preserve the intolerable status quo.
Phys251 said:
If one of them is at fault for a wreck, its creator needs to pay the bill.
Click to expand...
This is true. Or more realistically, what needs to happen is that they buy auto insurance policies just like any other driver. And since they will certainly have better safety records and will be buying in bulk, their risk premiums will be a lot cheaper than human drivers. Then the insurance company pays the bill for any wrecks they cause, which are rare.
 
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Phys251 said:
Good. Fully automated cars are one of the most overrated inventions ever. If one of them is at fault for a wreck, its creator needs to pay the bill.
Click to expand...

This wasn’t a “fully automated” car, as was implied by the term “autopilot”, thus the customer was (allegedly) misled thinking that the car wouldn’t drive itself (at speed) through a stop sign at a T intersection. The “bill” (compensatory damage award) was $43M, but the punitive award (for misleading the customer?) was $200M.

 
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