Wrongful Autopilot Death Lawsuit Could Weigh on Tesla
The trial started on July 14th in a Miami federal court; Tesla settled a 2019 Autopilot death case 7 days before this trial, which has raised eyebrows.
This is a brief note about an important trial against Tesla’s Autopilot flaws in a federal court in Miami (Benavides v. Tesla Inc.), which is underway today on Day 4 and could weigh on Tesla’s share price.
In fact, given the absence of any other possible catalysts, this could be why Tesla is underperforming the US markets this week. Below are a few bullet points on why this could be so and why it could be a blow to Tesla’s robotaxi rollout.
Local Miami Coverage of the Tesla Autopilot Trial
A federal lawsuit in Miami against Tesla’s Autopilot being structurally flawed is likely weighing on Tesla shares this week, as the plaintiffs keep winning and the sordid details are being reported by local news each day. Yesterday’s triumph: getting permission from the Judge to include in evidence 3 Autopilot crash cases with similar conditions to those of the plaintiff.
This came after Tesla’s lawyers successfully prevented the plaintiff from presenting data from the US National Traffic Safety Bureau (NTSB), which is the investigative arm of NHTSA, the chief regulator of transportation regulations in the US.
The NTSB has sparred with Musk more than any other government agency, with its Head in 2018 reprimanding Musk for breaking rules of investigations into Walter Huang’s crash (a lawsuit with which Tesla ultimately settled out of court last year). Musk hung up on the NTSB’s Head that day in 2018.
The 3 cases that the Judge allowed the plaintiffs to include are possibly more damning than using NTSB data for the following reasons:
Two of the 3 Autopilot crash cases the Judge allowed the plaintiff to enter as evidence were fatalities where Tesla settled out of court with the victims’ families (the families of Joshua Brown and Jeremy Banner, both of whom perished in their Tesla crashes in Florida, which is where the current lawsuit’s victim was killed).
Tesla only settled with the family of Jeremy Banner 11 days ago on July 7th, which was only a week before the current trial began on July 14th. This is highly suspicious and implies that Tesla feared that certain data (now sealed) may have made its way into the current trial.
Both Joshua Brown (2016) and Jeremy Banner (2019) crashed into large tractor-trailers passing in front of their Teslas, which were traveling at high speed on Autopilot. Both cars kept driving under the trailer. Brown was decapitated.
Because the current Benavides v. Tesla Inc. case is becoming increasingly damaging to Tesla in its 4th day in trial, it completely overshadows Tesla’s PR attempts to show that their “self-driving” technology works by running highly orchestrated “robotaxi” rides in Austin (where Musk has massive influence over regulators).
Musk Will Argue That Pre-2025 Autopilot Was “Old Tech”
Tesla’s fans are already arguing that the current version of FSD is way more advanced than the Autopilot versions in 2016-2019, when all of the above fatalities occurred. But this is beside the point.
Tesla Has Settled 4 Autopilot/FSD Cases Out of Court
Joshua Brown (2016): The family of that victim, Joshua Brown, eventually released a statement that said “Joshua loved his Tesla” and that the car was not at fault. Paul Grieco, an attorney for the Brown family, said he couldn’t comment on whether Tesla paid money or had relatives sign any kind of confidentiality agreement.
Walter Huang Case (2018): Tesla settled a lawsuit with the family of Walter Huang, an Apple engineer who died in a 2018 crash involving a Tesla Model X using Autopilot. The settlement was reached in April 2024, just before the trial was set to begin. The terms were not disclosed.
Clyde Leach Case (Undated): Tesla settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the estate of Clyde Leach, who died after his Tesla Model Y crashed, allegedly due to sudden acceleration. The settlement was confirmed in a federal court filing in San Francisco, with terms undisclosed.
Jeremy Banner Case (2019): Tesla settled a lawsuit over the 2019 death of Jeremy Banner, whose Tesla Model 3 crashed into a tractor-trailer while using Autopilot. The settlement was reached confidentially before a trial in Miami in 2025.
My gut feeling is that Tesla will very quickly settle this lawsuit out of court, as the stream of evidence makes Tesla look as evil a company as Musk is seen. And if Trump is indeed looking to squash Musk, he could add fuel to the fire by stalling regulatory approval of Tesla’s plans to roll out its robotaxis, which would face no opposition after this trial.
Both parties have to consent to a settlement. When people keep dying eventually you get people who are bitter and won't take a settlement offer. Alternatively plaintiffs could've heard a big number from their attorney's when discussing case value ahead of trial and now wont take anything less...especially when their counsel is telling them day after day that the trial is going great.
Apparently the family got some money from the drivers insurance and is using that to pay for the liability case against tesla.