The father of a motorcyclist killed when a Tesla driver using the EV’s “Autopilot” feature struck him from behind has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Elon Musk’s electric car giant, claiming the company knowingly sold dangerous technology.
The Seattle Times reports that Jeffrey Nissen, a 28-year-old Stanwood resident, was riding his Yamaha motorcycle on April 19, 2024, when tragedy struck. Late in the afternoon, Nissen stopped his motorcycle with the flow of vehicles. Behind him, a 58-year-old Snohomish man driving a 2022 Tesla Model S was looking at his cellphone while his vehicle operated on Autopilot mode. The Tesla struck Nissen from behind with such force that it continued moving forward, becoming stuck on top of the motorcyclist and pinning him beneath both his motorcycle and the car. Nissen died at the scene from his injuries.
Now, nearly two years after the fatal collision, Jeffrey Nissen’s father, Jeff Nissen, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla. The legal action alleges that the company knowingly marketed and sold technology that is unreasonably dangerous to the public. The family is seeking monetary damages and demanding that Tesla cease marketing and selling vehicles equipped with Autopilot and self-driving features until the company can demonstrate they can be safely operated.
Speaking about the lawsuit, the elder Nissen expressed frustration with what he views as misleading marketing practices. He told the Times, “Tesla tells people that their cars can do more than they do, and people believe it. And that’s what we want to avoid — having people believe a lie — because Tesla’s cars ain’t safe.”
Nissen’s lawyer, Simeon Osborn, added: “They’re using these people as guinea pigs. As test subjects. How many people are going to die before they take it off the market?” Osborn argues that both Tesla’s Autopilot and self-driving features are susceptible to misuse, and that the company’s marketing practices actively encourage such dangerous behavior. Osborn contends that Tesla’s promotional materials overstate the safety and capabilities of these systems, leading drivers to place excessive trust in the technology.
The attorney also criticized the frequency of alerts that Tesla vehicles provide to drivers, suggesting that the constant barrage of visual and audible warnings may cause drivers to become desensitized to truly critical safety notifications. Osborn characterized Tesla’s approach as using customers as test subjects, questioning how many fatalities must occur before the technology is removed from the market.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit. The legal action arrives amid growing federal scrutiny of the company’s driver assistance technology. Tesla has previously settled multiple lawsuits related to similar crashes, including two separate California incidents in 2019 that resulted in three deaths, one victim being just 15 years old.
According to court records and a probable cause affidavit, the Tesla driver told a Washington State Patrol trooper that he was using Autopilot and looking at his phone when he heard a loud noise and felt his vehicle lurch forward. The driver reported running over a motorcyclist and said he was unable to move his car quickly enough to save Nissen’s life.
This lawsuit is far from an isolated case. Tesla has faced numerous wrongful death lawsuits stemming from crashes involving drivers using Autopilot or self-driving features. One ongoing case involves a 2023 collision in Idaho that killed four people. In August, a federal jury in Miami awarded more than $240 million to victims of a deadly 2019 crash. In that case, the Tesla driver was using Autopilot and admitted to being distracted by his cellphone when he crashed into another vehicle, killing one person and injuring another.
Read more at the Seattle Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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