The verdict represents Tesla's second big win this year, in which juries have declined to find that its software was defective. Tesla has been testing and rolling out its Autopilot and more advanced Full Self-Driving system, which Chief Executive Elon Musk has touted as crucial to his company's future but which has drawn regulatory and legal scrutiny.
The 2019 crash killed Lee and seriously injured his two passengers, including a then-eight-year-old boy who was disemboweled, court documents show. The trial involved gruesome testimony about the passengers' injuries, and the plaintiffs asked the jury for US$400 million plus punitive damages. Jonathan Michaels, an attorney for the plaintiffs, expressed disappointment in the verdict but said in a statement that Tesla was "pushed to its limits" during the trial.
Tesla won an earlier trial in Los Angeles in April with a strategy of saying it tells drivers that its technology requires human monitoring, despite the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving names. In other lawsuits, plaintiffs have alleged Autopilot is defectively designed, leading drivers to misuse the system. The jury in Riverside, however, was only asked to evaluate whether a manufacturing defect impacted the steering.Tesla shares closed up 1.76 per cent after rising more than two per cent.
On the stand, Tesla engineer Eloy Rubio Blanco rejected a plaintiff lawyer's suggestion that the company named its driver-assistant feature Full Self-Driving because it wanted people to believe that its systems had more abilities than was really the case.
Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »