By Madlin Mekelburg, Bloomberg
Tesla Inc. reached a confidential deal to resolve a lawsuit by the family of a teenager who was killed in a 2019 California crash involving a Model 3 on Autopilot.
The settlement disclosed in court filings marks the latest move by the electric-vehicle maker to avoid a jury trial over a fatal wreck. A trial was scheduled to start in about a month in Alameda County Superior Court.
The accord comes after after the automaker has struck secret settlements in several other cases that blamed defective technology for deadly accidents. Tesla prevailed in two California trials in 2023 over Autopilot crashes, but suffered its first significant setback in July when a federal jury in Miami found the company partially responsible for a fatal collision with a parked SUV and imposed $200 million in punitive damages. Tesla is challenging the verdict.
In the most recently settled case, Benjamin Maldonado and his 15-year-old son Jovani were driving home from a soccer tournament in their Ford Explorer on Interstate I-880 in Alameda County. Traffic was starting to slow, and Maldonado activated his blinker before moving right. Seconds later, his car was struck from behind by a Tesla Model 3 using Autopilot driver-assistance software and Jovani was ejected from the passenger seat and died.
Representatives of Tesla and lawyers for the family didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Before Impact
Data from the Tesla shows that, in the moments before impact, the driver did not have his hands on the steering wheel and was traveling approximately 70 miles (113 kilometers) per hour, according to the lawsuit filed by the Maldonados.
The family claims defects in the Tesla’s driver-assistance software caused the car to fail to react to conditions on the roadway. They also accused the company of misrepresenting the self-driving capabilities of its cars and failing to install key safeguards to warn drivers to remain focused on the road. Those allegations are a common feature in several suits against Tesla across the country.
Tesla had argued in court filings that its technology functioned as designed and that there was no evidence that the Model 3 driver’s decision to take his hands off the wheel was influenced by public statements made by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk that Teslas can drive themselves.
The company has recently been settling crash suits despite Musk previously claiming an aversion to settling “unjust” cases in a 2019 social media post.
Aaron Davis, a Florida-based personal injury lawyer, said there’s no downside for Musk to say he doesn’t like to settle.
“Ultimately, the decisions that he’s going to make through his company, or that his company makes on his behalf, are going to be based on the facts of any individual cases,” Davis said.
Model X
In a case that settled in April 2024 just before trial, Tesla was set to face off against the family of a driver whose Model X veered off a California freeway into a highway barrier in 2018 while he was playing a video game on his phone and relying on Autopilot.
The next month, Tesla reached a deal days before a trial with the family of a Model S passenger who died in a 2016 wreck that the company had argued was solely the fault of the driver, who police had said was driving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.
Just before the Miami trial got under way, Tesla quietly settled another case over a 2019 fatal crash in Florida, in which a Model 3 driver using Autopilot collided with a tractor-trailer crossing a Florida highway.
It is not uncommon for car manufacturers to settle crash cases rather than take their chances with a jury. In fact, the vast majority of all personal injury cases never reach a trial. Several cases against Tesla have been dropped by plaintiffs or dismissed by judges.
Stock Battered
Musk has been working to win back investor confidence after the company’s stock was battered, first by his close affiliation with President Donald Trump, and then by his dramatic falling out with the president and declining sales. Musk has made clear that Tesla’s future hinges on autonomous driving and the company is in the midst of launching a robotaxi business.
Tesla faces three more trials over fatal Autopilot crashes in the next six months in California. It’s also set to go to trial in Houston in November over a case alleging that five police officers were severely injured on the side of a freeway when a Tesla on Autopilot plowed into a parked squad car at 70 mph.
The company is also fighting an administrative complaint by California’s Department of Motor Vehicles accusing Tesla of falsely marketing its driver-assistance software as more capable than it really is. A hearing was held in July but no ruling was immediately issued.
Other Tesla crash settlements disclosed in court filings include:
- A woman who had both legs amputated after she was crushed in 2021 loading groceries in a Maryland parking lot by a Model 3 that allegedly detected her presence with its forward collision warning system but failed to stop accelerating or deploy emergency braking.
- A man who claimed Autopilot failed to perceive a merging vehicle in dense traffic on the Long Island Expressway in 2017, causing his Model X to strike vehicles in the next lane when trying to avoid accelerating into the vehicle in front.
- A man who died from blunt-force trauma and burns in 2021 when his Model Y allegedly suddenly accelerated, went off the road, ran into a pillar at an Ohio gas station and burst into flames.
- A woman who suffered a brain injury 2019 when her Model 3 airbags allegedly failed to deploy in a Maryland highway guardrail crash.
The case is Escudero vs. Tesla, RG21090128, Superior Court of California (Alameda County)
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