A safety expert has testified that Elon Musk’s Tesla failed to adequately protect against the misuse of its Autopilot system, which a lawsuit claimed caused a fatal crash in 2019.
Bloomberg reports that in a Miami court, Mary “Missy” Cummings, an engineering professor at George Mason University, has called into question Tesla’s efforts to prevent the misuse of Elon Musk’s Autopilot system. Her testimony comes as part of a federal trial over a fatal 2019 collision involving a Tesla Model S in Key Largo, Florida.
According to Cummings, Tesla’s owner’s manual, which contains crucial warnings about the Autopilot system’s functionality, is not easily accessible to drivers. She also pointed out that Tesla had been grappling with drivers ignoring computer-generated warnings prior to the crash. Cummings noted that the company had not implemented geo-fencing, a technology already in use by other car manufacturers to prevent drivers from activating driver-assistance features on roads unsuitable for such systems.
When asked by Brett Schreiber, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, about Tesla’s decision not to use geo-fencing in 2019, Cummings responded, “I believe they were using that as a way to sell more cars.” Cummings, who previously served as a senior adviser at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is expected to face questioning from Tesla’s lawyers when she returns to the witness stand.
The trial, expected to last three weeks, is the first federal case to challenge Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s claims about the safety of his company’s vehicles. It comes at a crucial time for Tesla as the company pushes to launch its robotaxi business and stakes its future partially on autonomous driving technology.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Naibel Benavides Leon, who was killed, and Dillon Angulo, who suffered serious injuries when a Tesla Model S drove through a T-intersection in Key Largo, leaving the pavement and striking their parked Chevrolet Tahoe as they stood nearby. The plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that Tesla’s driver-assistance system was defective and that the company failed to adequately warn users about its limitations. Tesla, however, maintains that the crash resulted from driver error, a defense the company has successfully used in two previous California trials where Autopilot was blamed for accidents.
George McGee, the driver of the Model S involved in the crash, had engaged the driver-assistance system but had dropped his mobile phone and was not watching the road while reaching for the device on the floorboard. The plaintiffs’ lawyers have repeatedly shown jurors augmented video clips from the car’s cameras, demonstrating that the system identified the road’s edge, paint indicating a stop sign, the parked Tahoe, and a nearby pedestrian.
Tesla argues that no technology available in 2019 could have prevented the crash and that McGee was entirely at fault for pressing the accelerator and overriding the vehicle’s adaptive cruise control before veering off the road.
When questioned about a letter Tesla sent to NHTSA claiming that “Autopilot has the most robust set of warnings against driver misuses and abuse of any feature ever deployed in the automotive industry,” Cummings told the jury, “I saw no evidence that would back up this claim that they have the most robust set of warnings.”
Cummings, who has faced criticism from Tesla fans and was called “extremely biased against Tesla” by Musk when she was appointed as a safety adviser for NHTSA in 2021, has served as an expert witness in at least two other lawsuits against Tesla related to the Autopilot system.
The professor stated that McGee clearly believed the car was his copilot and would stop for obstacles in the road, a sentiment shared by many Tesla drivers who feel they can rely on Autopilot to navigate while they attend to other tasks, such as retrieving a dropped phone
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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