Tesla heads to court for wrongful death trial involving Autopilot system

Tesla heads to federal court in Miami on Monday to defend its Autopilot system in a wrongful death case involving the death of a 22-year-old college student.

The lawsuit, originally filed in April 23, 2021, in the 11th Judicial Court of Florida in Miami-Dade County, marks the first wrongful death case against Tesla to make it to trial. The plaintiffs, Dillon Angulo, and the family of Naibel Benavides Leon, who was killed in the accident, are requesting punitive damages and compensation for medical costs and other expenses.

The fatal crash took place in April 2019, when a Model S Tesla equipped with the Autopilot technology struck a parked vehicle in Key Largo, Florida, killing Leon and gravely injuring Angulo.

The trial will be a major test for the EV maker which has had to contend with slumping sales and a hit to its stock price after CEO Elon Musk took on a central role within the Trump Administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk has since stepped back from leading DOGE, although earlier this month after renewing a squabble with President Trump over the recently signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he floated launching a third party, dubbed the "America Party" — a move experts say could further imperil the billionaire's company's future. Tesla is also in the midst of rolling out its self-driving Robotaxis, which were part of a pilot in Austin Texas last month.

The lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case did not respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment.

According to recent court filings connected to the case, Tesla-owner George McGee had the Autopilot function of his 2019 Tesla Model S activated as he was driving on two-lane rural road in Key Largo on April 25, 2019. McGee dropped his phone as he was approaching an intersection, and lost sight of the road as he bent down to pick it up, court documents state.

In that moment, McGee's car allegedly plowed through the T-shaped intersection at over 60 miles per hour failing to break before crashing into the side of Chevrolet Tahoe truck parked on the side of the road, killing Naibel Benavides Leon, 22, and seriously injured her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo who were standing by the truck, which was owned by Angulo.

At issue is whether the car's Autopilot system was defective and contributed to the death of Benavides. In a court filing, Todd Poses, one of the plaintiff's lawyer claims that design defects in the car's Autopilot system failed to detect obstacles, such as the Chevy Tahoe, resulting in the death of Benavides.

In its Motion for Summary Judgement, filed on June 26, Tesla argues that the Autopilot feature "did not make the car 'self-driving'" and that McGee was aware "was high aware that it was still [his] responsibility to operate the vehicle safely even with Autopilot activate."

"The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla's Autopilot technology. Instead, like so many unfortunate accidents since cell phones were invented, this was caused by a distracted driver. To his credit, he took responsibility for his actions because he was searching for his dropped cell phone while also pressing the accelerator, speeding and overriding the car's system at the time of the crash. In 2019 when this occurred, no crash avoidance technology existed that could have prevented this tragic accident," Tesla said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.

The trial begins July 14.

Mary Cummings, a George Mason University professor and expert on advanced driver-assistance systems is likely to testify at the trial, documents from the lawsuit's docket indicate. McGee, the driver of the car, is also expected to testify.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.