Tesla seeks new trial or reversal in $243M Autopilot crash verdict

Tesla asked a federal judge on Friday to overturn or order a new trial on a $243 million verdict that found the automaker partly responsible for a 2019 Florida crash that killed a pedestrian and seriously injured her boyfriend. In a motion filed in Miami federal court, the company argued the jury unfairly blamed its Autopilot driver assistance software and said the evidence presented was prejudicial and legally insufficient to support the award.

The crash occurred on the night of April 25, 2019, near Key Largo, when a Tesla Model S struck Naibel Benavides as she and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, stood outside their parked vehicle. Court testimony shows the driver, George Brian McGee, was using Autopilot and admitted he had looked down to retrieve a dropped cellphone before the vehicle failed to stop at a stop sign. McGee testified, "I trusted the technology too much," according to trial records. The jury found McGee primarily at fault, allocating roughly two thirds of the blame to him and one third to Tesla, and awarded compensatory and punitive damages totaling $243 million to the victims and Benavides's family.

Tesla’s filing challenged the verdict as excessive and...