$329M for Tesla owner's family — what's behind the payout?

The United States has officially recognized Tesla's Autopilot as being involved in the fatal accident for the first time. The court ordered the company to pay hundreds of millions of USD in compensation to the victims, which could set a precedent for new lawsuits against the manufacturer.

CNN reports on how much Tesla must compensate the victims and what consequences this precedent will have for the company.

How the Tesla company ended up on the "bench of the defendant"

In the United States, the Tesla company was found responsible for a fatal road accident caused by the operation of the Autopilot. The court ruled to recover USD 329 million from the automaker in favor of the family of the deceased and one of the injured.

The accident occurred in 2019 in Florida. The Tesla Model S electric car, which was driving in autopilot mode, crashed into the parked car at a speed of about 100 km/h. The collision killed 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon, and her former partner, Dillon Angulo, was seriously injured.

Investigators found that the driver was distracted by his phone and did not notice road signs, and the autopilot system did not warn him of the danger. Experts are convinced that this verdict was made due to the detected error in the software.

How the accident will affect the Tesla company

The plaintiffs emphasized that Tesla allows Autopilot to be used outside of freeways, where the system cannot be called 100% reliable. Despite Elon Musk's claims that the technology "drives better than humans," the company could now face a new wave of lawsuits.

Tesla is preparing to appeal the court's decision. The automaker's shares fell after the ruling, and Musk's plans to launch a robotaxi next year were in doubt.

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