Tesla—Jury found Autopilot defective in landmark $329M verdict
In September 2025, a Miami jury delivered a groundbreaking verdict finding Tesla's Autopilot system defective, awarding $329 million in damages over a fatal Florida Keys crash that killed a 22-year-old pedestrian. This followed a $243M August verdict. California DMV ruled Tesla's 'Autopilot' and 'Full Self-Driving' marketing was deceptive, threatening 30-day license suspension. NHTSA investigating 2.4M vehicles over 700+ crashes.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Safety | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.367 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.73)× agency (compelled ×0.25)
Evidence (3 signals)
Jury found Autopilot defective in landmark $329M verdict
In September 2025, a Miami jury delivered a groundbreaking verdict finding Tesla's Autopilot system defective, awarding $329 million in damages over a fatal Florida Keys crash that killed a 22-year-old pedestrian. This followed a $243M August verdict. California DMV ruled Tesla's 'Autopilot' and 'Full Self-Driving' marketing was deceptive, threatening 30-day license suspension. NHTSA investigating 2.4M vehicles over 700+ crashes.
CNBC reported Tesla filed motion to appeal $243M Autopilot verdict, calling punitive damages unconstitutional
CNBC reported on August 29, 2025 that Tesla filed a motion to challenge the landmark $243 million Autopilot verdict, arguing the punitive damages were unconstitutional and that Florida law sets a high bar for such awards. Tesla's lawyers argued the Model S had no design defects and blamed the crash entirely on the driver.
NBC News reported Florida jury found Tesla Autopilot defective, awarded $243M in first-ever third-party wrongful death verdict
NBC News reported on August 1, 2025 that a Florida jury returned a $243 million verdict against Tesla ($43M compensatory + $200M punitive) in the first jury verdict ever finding Autopilot defective. The case stemmed from an April 2019 crash that killed pedestrian Naibel Benavides Leon and injured Dillon Angulo while the Tesla Model S was in Autopilot mode. Jurors placed 33% fault on Tesla and 67% on the driver.