A historic judgment has established that Tesla must pay $234 million in damages to the families of victims of a fatal accident involving the company’s Autopilot system.
according to Electrek the event took place in 2019, then George McGee drove his Tesla Model S in Key Largo, Florida (USA). McGee had dropped his cell phone on the floor and so activated Autopilot mode to bend down and retrieve it.
McGees Tesla was doing around 100 km/h when the car ran a red light and hit a parked car Chevrolet Tahoe with full power. The accident took the life of a 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and inflicted on her lover, Dillon Angulowho was 26 at the time, suffered serious injuries.
In August 2025, a federal jury in Miami found Tesla responsible for the accident and attributed 33% of the blame to the car manufacturer. The jury awarded $43 million in compensatory damages and an additional $200 million in punitive damages.
This was the first major victory for a plaintiff against Tesla in a wrongful death case related to the company’s Autopilot system. It is worth noting that Tesla had turned down a $60 million settlement offer before the trial—a decision that proved costly for the company.
Despite this attempt Tesla to appeal the sentence. In August 2025, the company’s lawyers filed a 71-page petition asking the court to overturn the ruling or grant a new trial.
The company argued that the ruling “contradicts basic Florida tort law, the Due Process Clause and common sense.” Tesla also claimed that references to statements by the company’s CEO, Elon Muskwhether Autopilot had misled the jury during the trial.
The US District Judge Beth Bloom However, he was not convinced. In her decision, she ruled that Tesla had not advanced new arguments that could justify overturning the jury’s verdict. Still have Tesla announced that the company will appeal the decision to a higher court.
The company also pointed to a preliminary agreement before the trial that would allegedly limit punitive damages to three times the compensatory damages, which could reduce the final amount. Even under this interpretation will Tesla still had to pay a compensation of nine figures.
“Tesla’s arguments were just an attempt to rehash the court’s pre-trial rulings. We look forward to continuing our work to keep Tesla accountable for his lies and gross negligence in courts across the United States,” the victims’ attorney stated Brett Schreiber in a statement to Electrek.
Photo: Unsplash. This content has been created with the help of KI and reviewed by the editors.
