At a federal trial over a fatal 2019 Florida Keys crash, experts criticized Tesla’s Autopilot operating limits, driver monitoring and crash-statistics methodology. Those criticisms were testimony, not the court’s findings. The jury later assigned Tesla 33% of the fault and the driver 67%; the court entered a final judgment of $242,570,000 against Tesla.
What happened in the crash
The case arose from a 2019 crash involving a Tesla Model S driven by George McGee. According to Ars Technica’s July 18, 2025 report, Autopilot was engaged when the car sped through a stop sign and struck Naibel Benavides Leon and Dillon Angulo near their parked car. Benavides Leon, 22, was killed; Angulo was seriously injured.
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The plaintiffs brought design-defect and failure-to-warn claims. The trial’s expert testimony addressed how the system was designed and monitored, as well as how Tesla presented safety data. The testimony should not be confused with the jury’s later allocation of responsibility or a judicial finding that every criticism was established.
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What the experts criticized
Missy Cummings on operating limits and driver monitoring
Autonomous-systems expert Missy Cummings testified that, in her professional opinion, “Tesla’s Autopilot is defective because Tesla knowingly allows the car to be operated in operational domains for which it is explicitly not designed for.” That was Cummings’ opinion as reported by Ars, not a court finding.
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Cummings also said Tesla’s cockpit monitoring system “is simply not sufficient as keeping the driver engaged.” Ars reported that she discussed mode confusion: a driver may believe Autopilot remains engaged after it has disengaged, or may ignore warnings and requests to keep hands on the wheel. She characterized Tesla’s approach as “promoting the abuse and misuse of Autopilot.” These are her criticisms as presented in trial reporting.
Mendel Singer on crash-statistics comparisons
Statistician Mendel Singer challenged the comparability of Tesla’s crash statistics. As Ars reported his testimony, his concern was that non-Tesla crashes could be counted from police reports regardless of whether safety systems were in use, while Tesla figures were organized around system use. Comparing those categories may not produce a like-for-like safety comparison.
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Singer said he was “not aware of any published study, any reports that are done independently… where [Tesla] actually had raw data and could validate it to see does it tend to make sense”. Ars also reported his view that Tesla’s purported safety paper would have received a quick rejection in peer review. These remarks describe Singer’s assessment; they do not independently establish that all Tesla safety data are invalid.
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What the jury decided and what the court entered
The jury assigned 67% of responsibility to the driver and 33% to Tesla. Tesla’s 2025 quarterly filing reports $129 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages awarded by the jury. Those are the gross jury awards, not the amount of the court’s final judgment.
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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered final judgment against Tesla for $242,570,000 on August 3, 2025. The later judgment figure is distinct from the two gross award figures, so they should not be added or substituted for one another when describing what the court entered.
In an order dated February 20, 2026, the court addressed Tesla’s motion for judgment as a matter of law or, alternatively, for a new trial or amended judgment. The indexed order information available here does not establish the full disposition of those motions; it therefore does not support a claim about their outcome or any subsequent appeal posture.
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How to read the testimony and outcome
- Cummings’ testimony concerned system design, operating domains and whether driver monitoring kept drivers engaged.
- Singer’s testimony concerned the methods used to compare crash statistics and whether underlying data were independently validated.
- The jury’s decision apportioned fault and awarded damages; it is separate from the experts’ opinions.
- The court’s judgment was $242,570,000, not the sum described as gross jury awards.
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