Tesla Car Crash: In a rare legal blow to Elon Musk’s Tesla, a federal jury in Miami has ordered the company to pay $329 million in damages for a fatal crash involving its Autopilot driver-assistance system. According to court records, the jury awarded $200 million in punitive damages, along with $59 million to the family of Naibel Benavides Leon and $70 million to her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo.
The case involved a tragic late night accident in 2019 on a dark road in Key Largo, Florida. The jury found that Tesla’s Autopilot system was partly responsible for the crash that killed 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and left her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, seriously injured after a Tesla Model 3 slammed into them while they were stargazing on the roadside. Meanwhile, Tesla plans to appeal the verdict, according to its defense attorneys.