Family blames Tesla’s Autopilot feature for 15-year-old’s death in California lawsuit
A California family is suing Tesla, blaming the company’s Autopilot system for a crash that killed their 15-year-old son.
A lawsuit filed last week in Alameda County Superior Court by Benjamin Maldonado Escudero and his wife, Adriana Garcia Maldonado, says that their son was killed in an accident involving a Tesla Model 3, which contains “defects which posed an unreasonable risk of injury or death to consumers.”
According to the lawsuit, Maldonado Escudero was driving on Interstate I-880 with his son Jovani Maldonado Garcia on Aug. 24, 2019, and changed lanes when his vehicle was rear-ended by a Tesla Model 3, causing Maldonado Escudero’s car to flip over and crash into the barrier of the freeway.
As a result of the crash, Jovani was ejected from the car and died from his injuries at the scene while Maldonado Escudero injured his spine, the suit states.
The Tesla was traveling at 69 mph in a 65-mph zone and accelerated to 70 mph in the two seconds before the collision, according to the lawsuit.
McClatchy News didn’t immediately receive a response from Tesla for a request for comment.
The suit also names the driver of the Tesla, Romeo Lagman Yalung of Newark, and his wife, Vilma, as defendants.
Tesla is marketed as “self-driving,” and the Autopilot feature has been described as “safe and as good or better than a human driver at detecting hazards,” the family says. However, the lawsuit states that Tesla doesn’t place limitations on when Autopilot can be used and that Tesla customers use Autopilot “in conditions when it is dangerous to do so.”
The lawsuit also says that Yalung wasn’t in control of the Tesla at the time of the crash and for at least six seconds for the collision and didn’t “otherwise take any action to avoid the impact with Plaintiff’s vehicle.”
A video provided by the family’s attorney Benjamin Swanson to McClatchy News shows the crash captured from Tesla’s forward-looking cameras. The video shows the Tesla driving and Maldonado Escudero turning on his right-turn signal before trying to change lanes.
Maldonado Escudero said he saw the Tesla approaching from behind and tried to swerve into his original lane, The New York Times reported, citing court documents.
Tesla attorney Ryan McCarthy said in emails to Swanson’s law firm that were included in court documents that Yalung was at fault, not Tesla, according to the publication.
“The police faulted the Tesla driver — not the car — for his inattention and his driving at an unsafe speed,” McCarthy wrote, the Times reported.
Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk said in a tweet on July 1 that “accidents on Autopilot are becoming rarer.”
The company’s representatives, however, have previously expressed doubts about Tesla’s “self-driving” capabilities.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Family blames Tesla’s Autopilot feature for 15-year-old’s death in California lawsuit."