Elon Musk attends the US-Saudi Investment Forum to be held in Washington on November 19, 2025.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
A federal judge in Miami denied Tesla’s The company has made a bid to overturn a $243 million judgment in a lawsuit that seeks to force automakers to compensate victims and survivors of a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash.
The crash in Key Largo, Florida, killed 22-year-old Knievel Benavidez and seriously injured his girlfriend Dillon Angulo. Tesla owner George McGee was driving a Model S sedan while using the company’s partially automated driving system, Enhanced Autopilot. McGee said during the trial that when he dropped his phone while driving and scrambled to pick it up, he thought the system would apply the brakes if there was an obstacle.
McGee’s car instead accelerated through the intersection at more than 90 mph, hitting an empty car parked nearby and Angulo and Benavidez, who were standing on the opposite side of the car.
A jury found Tesla partly to blame for the fatal crash last year. Tesla has filed an appeal, seeking to set aside the verdict or proceed with a new trial.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom said in an order issued Friday that “the evidence admitted at trial more than supports the jury’s verdict” and that no errors had been made so far and no additional arguments were introduced to justify a new trial or change of the previous verdict.
“We are certainly pleased, but not at all surprised, that the Honorable Judge Bloom upheld the jury’s verdict holding Tesla liable for Autopilot’s significant role in the crash that killed Mr. Knievel and seriously injured Mr. Dillon and for misrepresenting its capabilities,” Brett Schreiber, lead trial attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.
Tesla’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling marks the latest setback for Elon Musk’s automaker as it tries to make a comeback in the emerging robotaxi market. Tesla is way behind of the alphabet America’s Waymo and Baidu’s In China, both companies offer commercial ride-hailing services, including Apollo Go. Musk said last month that Tesla would build an “extensive” network of driverless robotaxis in the United States by the end of 2026, but the company has not yet widely offered driverless ride-hailing services and only operates a small number of robotaxis in Austin, Texas.
Gibson Dunn, who represented Tesla, argued that the damages in the Florida lawsuit should be significantly reduced from $129 million to less than $69 million, which would force Tesla to pay $23 million in damages. The company also said punitive damages should be eliminated or reduced to at most three times the compensatory damages due to Florida’s statutory cap.
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