Evidence shows Tesla, Elon Musk ignored autopilot defects that led to fatal crash, judge rules

WEST PALM BEACH — A Florida jury may decide whether Elon Musk and other Tesla executives ignored defects with their cars' self-driving feature, leading to the death of a man who crashed into a tractor-trailer moments after he let go of the wheel.

Kim Banner sued Musk and his company in 2019 after her husband, Jeremy Banner, died behind the wheel of an autopiloted Tesla Model 3 in suburban Delray Beach. Circuit Judge Reid Scott rejected Tesla's motion to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit this month, setting the stage for what's expected to be a month-long jury trial.

"This case goes far beyond simple negligence or mistake," said Lake Lytal III, one of Banner's attorneys. "This is intentional conduct, by both the company and Elon Musk, to not fix a defect they knew was killing their customers."

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According to the lawsuit, 50-year-old Jeremy Banner paid $5,000 for the “Enhanced Autopilot,” which promises superior safety over Tesla's standard Autopilot. The father of three activated the Autopilot system, but Banner's attorneys say it failed to detect and respond to the tractor-trailer that drove into his path on State Highway 441 on March 1, 2019.

The Tesla's roof was sheared off as it passed beneath the truck at 68 mph. Medics pronounced Banner dead at the scene.

Tesla released a statement saying the company was "deeply saddened" by Banner's death, but added that company data shows that "when used properly by an attentive driver who is prepared to take control at all times," drivers using Autopilot are safer than those without it. The company has since speculated that Banner was using his cellphone at the time of the crash.

In a 23-page ruling this month, the judge said Kim Banner had enough evidence to argue Tesla's culpability at trial. Scott also ruled that she can seek punitive damages from the company, which has maintained that neither its technology nor its misleading advertisements were responsible for the crash.

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Scott wrote that Tesla "engaged in a marketing strategy that painted the products as autonomous," pointing to a 2016 video that touted Autopilot's seemingly hands-off capabilities. The video included a disclaimer that the person in the driver's seat was only there for legal reasons, and "the car is driving itself."

"Absent from this video is any indication that the video is aspirational or that this technology doesn’t currently exist in the market," Scott wrote.

The judge cited other fatal crashes similar to the one that killed Banner. He said a reasonable juror may find that Tesla and its engineers were "acutely aware of the problem with the 'Autopilot' failing to detect cross traffic."

Tesla unsuccessfully argued that Banner acknowledged the feature's limitations in what's known as a “clickwrap agreement," the fine print users must agree to in order to enable Autopilot for the first time.

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"You click it, you never see it again. Nobody reads it," said Banner's attorney, Lytal. "You can't hide behind something like that when your company knows your product has a defect that's killing people."

Lytal said the case is "extremely likely" to go to trial, and there have been no realistic talks of settling it outside of court. In the meantime, Banner's attorneys and those representing Tesla and Musk, who did not respond to requests for comment, are scheduled to meet again Friday to discuss which confidential court filings can be unsealed to the public.

The judge previously ordered that all his rulings be confidential, pursuant to a protective order common in product liability cases. They were mistakenly available on the Palm Beach County court clerk's website last week but have since been taken down.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Judge finds evidence Elon Musk ignored fatal flaws in Tesla's tech