Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/tesla-ordered-by-florida-jury-pay-243-million-fatal-autopilot-crash-2025-08-01/ Aug 1 (Reuters) - A Florida jury on Friday found Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab liable to pay $243 million to victims of a 2019 fatal crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S, a verdict that could encourage more legal action against Elon Musk's electric vehicle company. . . . In April 2019, AutoPilot saved me, my wife, and our dog from a crash when I had a medical emergency. Traveling to Decatur, I had five, "micro-sleep" events and the car stayed in the lane instead of going off the road, down a ditch, and hitting a power or fence post. Yes, AutoPilot had bugs which I was mapping at the time that were eventually resolved but it was +90-99% of the time safe with some "Oh Merde!" bugs. Since November of 2024, there has been a significant improvement in Full Self Driving, probably in AutoPilot too since they share similar code. But even between 2019 and last year, there had been incremental improvements. On my short list, the only residual problems are with weak lane markers corrupted by peel-out rubber marks (two instances in Michigan.) Undocumented, there are better ways to drive with Full Self Driving. Full Self Driving is tightly coupled with the navigation system and the screen interface. There is a style of driving that minimizes how much time needed to get to where you want to go. Part of it is creative "disengagement." So I don't fault the lawsuit because in 2019, AutoPilot was a work in progress. So the lawyers will get 2/3ds of the $243 m or about $160 m. The family will get the rest, $80 m. Tesla can probably find that in the couch cushions Elon used to sleep on. .... Did I mention I am no longer a TSLA stock holder? Bob Wilson
