cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/55649025
US judge upholds $243 million verdict against Tesla over fatal Autopilot crash
Submitted 4 days ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to technology@lemmy.world
Submitted 4 days ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to technology@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/55649025
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 4 days ago
This is an interesting one. The jury actually only faulted Tesla for 33% of the total blame, but since the driver wasn’t a defendant in the suit, he doesn’t have to pay the remaining 2/3rds. I really struggled with this one because to me it felt like Tesla was being attacked, but looking at it in the full light of day it ended up being pretty fair. The driver completely ignored the road while looking for their cellphone which had dropped to the floor, and then blamed the Tesla for not alerting him of the intersection. That leans pretty hard on the driver being irresponsible to me, and the jury felt the same way, which is why they said that Tesla was only 33% to blame. So, Tesla trying to overturn this verdict is them trying to absolve themselves of all fault, which I don’t agree with, and I think the judge did the right thing. Tesla advertised a feature of a car that failed to work in the way it was described. Should the driver have been more present? Yep. Should Tesla still be partially responsible for the fault in their machinery? Yep, again.
julysfire@lemmy.world 4 days ago
A reasonable and nuanced take on the Internet? Is this 1999?
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 days ago
looks at mirror
Nope. Not 1999. I still have grey hair.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The dude had his foot on the accelerator overriding autopilot.
If his foot hadn’t been on the accelerator the saftey features may have actually worked.
When your foot is on the accelerator, it tells you it will not brake.
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The jury found that the marketing from Tesla didn’t line up with the actual abilities. Musk is on record saying that Autopilot drives better than a human. They also stated that it should only be used on highways and access roads, but even with their GPS always active, the car doesn’t differentiate between road types, and so will let you use it anywhere you like.
On top of that, Tesla triggered the car to wipe the crash data from the local copy 3 minutes after the accident so that the only copy of the crash data that remained was stored on their servers and could be tampered with.
All of that led the jury to giving 33% fault to Tesla, which, again, I think is fair.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 days ago
i mean, were they joint and severally liable? often depends on the state the accident happens in. if they were they can take funds from the liable parties in any proportion regardless of how the blame is assigned.
halloween_spookster@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Worth a read for a more in-depth look into what happened: electrek.co/…/tesla-withheld-data-lied-misdirecte…