Tesla Inc. failed to fix limitations in its Autopilot system following a gruesome Florida crash that killed a driver in 2016, company engineers said in a family’s lawsuit over a very similar 2019 fatal collision that’s headed to a jury trial.
The EV maker didn’t make any changes to its driver-assistance technology to account for crossing traffic in the nearly three years between two high-profile accidents that killed Tesla drivers whose cars slammed into the side of trucks, according to newly revealed testimony from multiple engineers.
After years of touting autonomous driving as the way of the future, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk are under legal pressure from consumers, investors, regulators and federal prosecutors who are questioning whether the company has over-hyped its progress toward self-driving vehicles during the last eight years.