Jury orders Tesla to pay $242 million over fatal crash
A Florida jury just ordered Tesla to pay $242 million after a 2019 crash involving its Autopilot feature left one person dead and another injured in Key Largo.
The jury decided that Tesla's driver-assist tech was partly to blame when George McGee's car collided with an SUV, raising fresh questions about how safe these systems really are.
Tesla plans to appeal the decision
The payout includes $200 million in punitive damages, plus $59 million for the victim's family and $70 million for the survivor. Since Tesla was found one-third responsible, that's how they landed on the final amount.
Tesla isn't backing down—they plan to appeal, arguing that driver error caused the crash and no car could have avoided it back then or now.
This case puts even more spotlight on self-driving features and who should be held accountable when things go wrong.