Elon Musk and Tesla have decided to appeal the Miami jury decision in fatal Autopilot crash case.
According to Sky News, Musk is planning to appeal the decision after the jury partly blamed the tech giant’s electric car company, Tesla, for the death of a young woman in Florida and ordered it to pay $243m (£183m) to victims.
Naibel Benavides died after a Tesla car on Autopilot hit her and her boyfriend while stargazing in Florida in 2019.
The crash sent Benavides flying 22 m (75 ft) through the air, causing her death, while her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, was seriously injured in the incident.
The jury on Friday, August 1, ordered the company to pay $243m (£183m) in damages to Benavides' family and Angulo, citing that the driver could not be solely blamed for the fatal incident.
The jury said, “Today's verdict represents justice for Naibel's tragic death and Dillon's lifelong injuries."
Tesla reacts to fatal Autopilot crash case verdict:
The richest person in the world, Musk, and his company, Tesla, called the decision “wrong” and vowed to appeal the verdict.
Tesla also argued that the driver of the car, George McGee, should be blamed for the incident solely, as he got distracted by picking up his phone while driving his Model S at 62 mph.
The company said, “To be clear, no car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash. This was never about Autopilot; it was a fiction concocted by plaintiffs' lawyers blaming the car when the driver, from day one, admitted and accepted responsibility.”
“(The verdict will) jeopardise Tesla's and the entire industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology,” the EV company added.
It is worth noting that McGee, the driver of the electric car, accepted that he got distracted by his phone before hitting Benavides and her partner, Angulo, and had previously settled a separate case with the victim’s families.
