Tesla ordered to pay $242 million after fatal crash

US carmaker Tesla was found partially liable on Friday for a fatal crash in Florida, USA, in April 2019 involving one of its vehicles, a Model S, equipped with the "Autopilot" option, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

An eight-member jury decided, following a trial in a federal civil court in Miami, to award the plaintiffs a total compensation of $328 million, Darren Jeffrey Rousso of the Rousso Boumel law firm, which represented the rights holders, told AFP.

He explained that the jury had set Tesla's damages at $200 million.

Jurors also awarded $59 million to Naibel Benavides Leon's estate and $69 million to her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, in damages for pain and suffering. Two-thirds of this amount is to be paid by the person responsible for the accident and one-third by Tesla.

These elements were confirmed by the database of judicial decisions of the American federal courts.

The Austin, Texas-based group will ultimately owe $242 million, said Darren Jeffrey Rousso.

"Justice has been served. The jury heard all the evidence and reached a just and fair verdict for our clients," he said.

According to the lawsuit filed against Tesla in April 2021, the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV the couple were traveling in on April 25, 2019, in Key Largo, Florida, was struck at full speed by the Model S after the driver assistance system, Autopilot, failed to detect it.

The young woman, 22 years old at the time of her death, was thrown several dozen meters, the complaint continues. Dillon Angulo was injured, but no details on his condition are available at this time.

"Today's verdict is wrong and only sets auto safety back in motion and threatens Tesla's and the (auto) industry's efforts to develop and implement life-saving technology," the automaker said in a statement sent to AFP.

He said he intends to appeal "given the significant legal errors and irregularities during the trial."

The jury "concluded that the driver was largely responsible for the tragic accident," but the evidence in the case "proved that the driver was solely responsible because he was speeding, with his foot on the accelerator—which deactivated Autopilot—while trying to retrieve the phone he had dropped, and without his eyes on the road," Tesla argued.

"No car in 2019, and none today, could have avoided the accident," the manufacturer insisted.

"It is a fiction concocted by the plaintiffs' lawyers to blame the car when the driver - from day one - acknowledged and accepted his responsibility" for the accident, he added.