Tesla on Tuesday won the first US trial over allegations that its autopilot driver-assistance feature led to a death, a major victory for the carmaker as it faces several similar lawsuits across the country.
The case, in a California state court, was brought by two passengers in a 2019 crash who accused the company of knowing the autopilot feature was defective when it sold the car. Tesla argued that human error caused the crash.
On Tuesday, the 12-member jury announced it had found that the vehicle did not have a manufacturing defect. The verdict came on the fourth day of deliberations and the vote was 9-3.
Representatives for Tesla and the plaintiffs had no immediate comment on the verdict.
The civil lawsuit alleged that the autopilot system caused owner Micah Lee’s Model 3 to suddenly veer off a highway east of Los Angeles at 65mph (105km/h), hit a palm tree and burst into flames, all within seconds.
The 2019 crash killed Lee and seriously injured his two passengers, including a then eight-year-old boy who was eviscerated, according to court documents. The lawsuit, filed by the passengers against Tesla, accused the company of knowing the Autopilot feature and other safety systems were defective when it sold the car.
Tesla denied liability, saying Lee had consumed alcohol before getting behind the wheel. The electric car maker also claims it was unclear whether the Autopilot feature was engaged at the time of the crash.
Tesla has been testing and rolling out its autopilot and more advanced full self-driving (FSD) system, which chief executive Elon Musk has touted as crucial to his company’s future, but which has drawn regulatory and legal scrutiny.
Tesla won an earlier court case in Los Angeles in April on the strategy that it tells drivers that its technology requires human supervision, despite the names “autopilot” and “full self-driving”.
That case involved an accident in which a Model S swerved into a curb and injured its driver, and jurors told Reuters after the verdict that they believed Tesla had warned drivers about its system and that driver distraction was to blame.
