Cases › physical harm › LR-2026-0433
Judge upholds $243 million verdict against Tesla over fatal Autopilot crash
Preliminary Why: 1 report: CNBC · subject to change · 1 independent report
Developing: a major or severe case captured in the last 72 hours. Later changes are logged on the corrections page.
Status: action reported, no fix
No source states: loss or records, agent tool, could do, deployer, industry.
Severity severe: Safety of life test met: a fatal crash that killed one person and severely injured another.
A federal judge in Miami upheld a $243 million jury verdict against Tesla over a fatal 2019 crash in Key Largo, Florida. The driver had Enhanced Autopilot, a partially automated driving system, engaged when he dropped his phone and bent down to retrieve it. The car accelerated through an intersection at just over 60 mph, hitting a parked car and two people standing beside it. One person was killed and the other severely injured. A jury in August 2025 found Tesla partly liable and assigned 33% of the blame to the automaker. Tesla's bid to overturn the verdict was denied, with the judge finding that the evidence at trial more than supported it. Tesla has indicated it will appeal.
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What was done
Risks
Primary43 incidents
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Controls
Not yet read for controls. Controls that mitigate the primary risk:
Harness ApplicationPhysical safety interlocks · Human approval for high-impact actions · Live behaviour monitoring · Adversarial testing before deployment
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Evidence
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Show the full account: 2 items from the primary sources
What happened, in order
- 2025-08 Miami federal jury found Tesla liable and assigned 33% of the blame to the automaker.
Not dated in the sources:
- Tesla rejected a $60 million settlement offer before the trial.
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Notes on gaps
Electrek's commentary on failed safeguards such as geofencing is opinion and is not used as a control finding. Settlement and damages figures other than the verdict are disputed or unexplained and are left out.
LR-2026-0433 · version 1 · published 2026-11-01 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · JSON