Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has announced plans to appeal a court ruling that ordered Tesla to pay $243 million in damages to the family of Naibel Benavides and her partner, Dillon Angulo. The couple were involved in a fatal crash in 2019 linked to Tesla’s Autopilot system.
A Florida jury found Tesla partially liable for Benavides’ death. She was hit by a Tesla Model S while stargazing in Key Largo, which threw her 75 feet into a wooded area where her body was later found. Angulo, her boyfriend, suffered serious injuries.
Although the driver, George McGee, admitted to being distracted by his phone and settled separately with the victims’ families, the court ruled Tesla shared responsibility. The jury accepted the argument that Tesla’s Autopilot was not designed for the type of road where the crash happened, yet the system was not restricted from operating there.
Attorney Brett Schreiber, representing the plaintiffs, accused Tesla of negligence for allowing Autopilot to function beyond controlled-access highways, highlighting Elon Musk’s public claims that Autopilot is safer than human drivers.
Tesla criticized the verdict as “wrong” and harmful to automotive safety efforts. The company stated, “No car in 2019, and none today, would have prevented this crash. This case was never about Autopilot—it was a narrative created by plaintiffs’ lawyers to deflect blame from the admitted driver at fault.”
Tesla also argued the ruling could threaten progress in developing life-saving self-driving technology. The company denied any intentional withholding of data or video evidence, attributing the omission to an error.
Legal experts warn this decision might lead to a surge in similar lawsuits. Car crash attorney Miguel Custodio, uninvolved in the case, commented, “This will open the floodgates. It will encourage many to take legal action.”
The verdict comes as Musk continues to advance plans for a driverless taxi service and further expand Tesla’s autonomous driving technology, despite previous challenges. In 2023, Tesla recalled 2.3 million vehicles over concerns that Autopilot failed to properly alert inattentive drivers.
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