Ruling clears way for lawsuit brought against company over fatal crash in 2019 in which Stephen Banner was killed near Miami

A judge has found “reasonable evidence” that Elon Musk and other executives at Tesla knew that the company’s self-driving technology was defective but still allowed the cars to be driven in an unsafe manner anyway, according to a recent ruling issued in Florida.

Palm Beach county circuit court judge Reid Scott said he had found evidence that Tesla “engaged in a marketing strategy that painted the products as autonomous” and that Musk’s public statements about the technology “had a significant effect on the belief about the capabilities of the products”.

The ruling, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, clears the way for a lawsuit over a fatal crash in 2019 north of Miami involving a Tesla Model 3. The vehicle crashed into an 18-wheeler truck that had turned on to the road into the path of driver Stephen Banner, shearing off the Tesla’s roof and killing Banner.

  • Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 year ago

    Yeah, the scary part of this is that as much as I absolutely would never go near this shit with a ten foot pole when it’s clearly still woefully inadequate and over hyped… They very frequently drive withing ten feet of me because for some reason it’s legal to put this shit on roads with unwilling participants.

    • RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 year ago

      I get it there’s inevitable interference of interest here but we can’t really tell other people to not do things we don’t like in a free country

      Edit: this is clearly being misinterpreted. I am NOT talking about the Tesla. I’m saying a hypothetical, well-regulated self-driving car can be fielded without the permission of every other motorist that thinks they’re icky.

        • RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 year ago

          I am referring to America which prides itself on freedom (and not enough on equality and collectivism) . I’m just saying it makes legal sense that you don’t need the consent of every other motorist to operate a self-driving car (if it passes safety regulations and assuming no problems of regulatory capture). Both of those assumptions are not applicable here

          • Nudding@lemmy.world
            01·
            1 year ago

            How can you take pride in freedom while simultaneously having the most non violent offenders of any state to ever exist, in terms of raw numbers and per capita?