Tesla is fighting back after a Florida jury hit it with a $243 million verdict over a deadly 2019 crash involving its Autopilot system.
The company filed to toss out the verdict or get a new trial. Tesla’s lawyers say the verdict “flies in the face of basic Florida tort law, the Due Process Clause, and common sense.” Their filing doubles down on blaming the driver, George McGee, for the crash.
The jury found McGee two-thirds responsible and Tesla one-third at fault. McGee’s Tesla Model S didn’t brake approaching a stopped SUV at night, killing 20-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and severely injuring her boyfriend Dillon Angulo. McGee was also sued separately and settled. 
Tesla rejected the victims’ $60 million settlement offer months before the verdict.
Tesla lawyers argue product liability should punish cars that act “unreasonably dangerous” or against normal consumer expectations. They say that’s not the case here. Instead, they call McGee’s actions “extraordinary recklessness,” noting he admitted to reaching for his phone during the crash.
They warn allowing the verdict to stand would “deter innovation” and scare manufacturers from adding safety tech.
Tesla also attacks plaintiffs’ lawyers for swamping the jury with “highly prejudicial but irrelevant evidence,” including stuff about Elon Musk.
Plaintiffs’ lead attorney Brett Schreiber responded in an email:
“The motion is the latest example of Tesla and Musk’s complete disregard for the human cost of their defective technology.”
“The jury heard all the facts and came to the right conclusion that this was a case of shared responsibility, but that does not discount the integral role Autopilot and the company’s misrepresentations of its capabilities played in the crash that killed Naibel and permanently injured Dillon.”
“We are confident the court will uphold this verdict, which serves not as an indictment of the autonomous vehicle industry, but of Tesla’s reckless and unsafe development and deployment of its Autopilot system.”
