► Are autonomous cars safe?
► Tesla wins key lawsuit in US
► Jury rejects claim Autopilot unsafe
Tesla has won a landmark US trial over its Autopilot self-driving tech, which was claimed to have led to a fatal crash in 2019. The civil lawsuit in Riverside County Superior Court was thrown out after a jury found that the vehicle did not have a manufacturing defect.
The trial focused on a Tesla Model 3 whose Autopilot was alleged to have made Micah Lee’s car veer suddenly off a highway near Los Angeles at 65mph.
The electric car hit a palm tree and burst into flames, killing the driver.
Tesla Autopilot: how it works
Are autonomous cars safe?
It’s not the first time that Tesla’s autonomous driving tech has been linked to fatal accidents, but the company appears to be winning early test cases in America.
The jury found that ultimate responsibility for the vehicle lay with the driver, not the Autopilot system. Tesla argued in court that Lee had consumed alcohol before driving, newswire Reuters reports, and questioned whether Autopilot was properly engaged at the time of the crash.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer Jonathan Michaels said the family was disappointed by the verdict. ‘The jury’s prolonged deliberation suggests that the verdict still casts a shadow of uncertainty,’ he added.
Tesla welcomed the court’s findings.