Elon Musk, Tesla Knew of Self-Driving Technology Was Defective, Leading to Driver's Death, Judge Finds

A Florida judge has found "reasonable evidence" that Tesla executives, including billionaire Elon Musk, knew that the company's self-driving technology was defective. However, this information did not stop the company from allowing "cars to be driven in an unsafe manner," leading to a crash that resulted in the death of driver Stephen Banner.

In his ruling, Palm Beach County circuit court judge Reid Scott found that the Elon Musk-owned company "engaged in a marketing strategy that painted the products as autonomous," and its billionaire owner's own public statements about the technology made things worse as they "had a significant effect on the belief about the capabilities of the products."

According to The Guardian, Banner was using the car's autopilot system when his Tesla Model 3 crashed into an 18-wheeler truck in a 2019 road accident. The Tesla's roof was sheared off, killing Banner. This brought about the lawsuit from Banner's wife.

Tesla was accused of intentional misconduct and gross negligence, and Judge Scott's findings could open the company up for punitive damages.

This lawsuit was noted to have come after the company won two product liability lawsuits in California earlier this year. These lawsuits also focused on the alleged defects in Tesla's self-driving technology.

Judge Scott also found that the plaintiff could argue that Tesla's warnings in its manuals and "clickwrap" were inadequate, adding that Banner's incident was "eerily similar" to the fatal 2016 crash where Joshua Brown died after his car's self-driving system failed to detect any crossing trucks.

"It would be reasonable to conclude that the Defendant Tesla through its CEO and engineers was acutely aware of the problem with the 'Autopilot' failing to detect cross traffic," wrote Judge Scott in his ruling.

Judge Allows Lawsuit vs. Tesla To Go to Trial

With his findings, Judge Reid Scott rejected Tesla's motion to summarily dismiss the lawsuit filed by the wife of Stephen Banner, Kim Banner. He then allowed the lawsuit to move to trial, which is scheduled to happen sometime next year.

The Associated Press reported that he also allowed Kim Banner to seek punitive damages against the Elon Musk-owned electric car company, meaning that she could get millions of dollars should she win.

"The public is entitled to know these findings and we feel strongly that will happen in the next few weeks," Banner attorney Trey Lytal said in a statement following the judge's ruling.

Elon Musk Also Filed a Lawsuit of His Own

As for Elon Musk himself, he is busy with another lawsuit. This time, it is one he filed against Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media outlet.

According to TIME Magazine, Musk accused the outlet of "maliciously" trying to drive away advertisers from his social media platform, X, formerly Twitter, after Apple, IBM, and Oracle all pulled ads from the platform after it was found that they were running next to pro-Nazi content.

"Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.," the lawsuit read. The report in question came after a flurry of antisemitic and other hate speech popped up on X, with Elon Musk himself promoting some of them,

However, Media Matters brushed off the allegations and stated, "This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X's critics into silence." The media watchdog then vowed, "Media Matters stands behind its reporting and looks forward to winning in court."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Video shows Tesla autopilot failing at site of fatal March crash - CBS News