Back in April 2019, a devastating accident occurred in Key Largo, Florida, when a Tesla operating on Autopilot collided with a young couple alongside their parked car. This crash led to the unfortunate death of a 22-year-old woman and left her boyfriend with injuries that changed his life forever.
The driver reported activating Autopilot and momentarily looking down to retrieve a dropped phone. Seconds later, disaster struck as the vehicle failed to take evasive action, resulting in the collision. This incident spiraled into a legal struggle focusing on the extent of accountability attributed to Tesla’s Autopilot technology.
The victims’ families initiated a lawsuit against Tesla, claiming negligence on the part of the technology. Tesla countered, asserting that the driver was the one at fault, as the company’s manual instructs that drivers should remain vigilant even when Autopilot is enabled.
Enter the Hacker: Unraveling the Missing Evidence
A pivotal piece of evidence in this situation was a “collision snapshot” from the Tesla, which would illustrate what the sensors и cameras detected moments prior to the incident. However, when requested by lawyers and investigators, Tesla claimed that such data was unavailable.
For several years, the families diligently sought this crucial information, only to be met with Tesla’s assertion that the data had been lost. A turning point came when a skilled hacker, known for his work on Tesla systems, stepped in to help. Under the bright lights of a South Florida Starbucks, he connected the Autopilot unit of the car to his laptop and unearthed the missing logs almost instantaneously.
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The recovered snapshot disclosed that, prior to the collision, the Tesla detected both the parked car and the pedestrians. Alarmingly, despite being aware of their presence, the system still plotted a course that would lead the vehicle directly toward them. This revelation raised serious concerns about the performance of Autopilot during the critical moment.
In court, the findings from the hacker’s discovery were key evidence. The jury examined an enhanced video derived from the data, illustrating the Tesla’s approach toward the couple. The footage hinted that the driver could have reacted, but it simultaneously indicated that the system did not effectively warn him of the imminent danger.
The Court’s Ruling and Tesla’s Reaction
The trial lasted three weeks in a Miami federal court where Tesla maintained that the driver bore complete responsibility, blaming distraction from his phone. Although the company acknowledged handling of crash data was somewhat “clumsy,” they refuted any claims of deliberately withholding information.
Attorneys representing the victims argued that Tesla had access to the data from the outset and failed to disclose it, misleading investigators throughout the entire process.
After deliberating the evidence, the jury arrived at a decision, holding Tesla accountable for 33% of the incident. They awarded an astonishing $243 million in damages to the families affected and the surviving victim.
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This ruling is recognized as one of the largest judgments against Tesla regarding its driver-assistance technology. In response, the automaker announced plans to appeal the decision, insisting that the crash stemmed from distractions faced by the driver rather than faults in the Autopilot system.
Did you know the data was uploaded to Tesla’s servers just moments after the accident, only to be “unlinkеd” and earmarked for deletion later? Many began to question why it had been so challenging to retrieve such essential data.
The involvement of the hacker in accessing the data marked a turning point in the case. Without his specialized knowledge, the families might never have secured the critical snapshot that significantly influenced the jury’s ruling.
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