Tesla's Autopilot not responsible for fatal 2019 crash in California, jury finds in landmark case

A California state jury found that Tesla's Autopilot system was not responsible for a 2019 crash that killed a man and left his fiancé and her then-8-year-old son with serious injuries.

The jury found Tuesday that the car's Autopilot system was not the cause of the crash that killed Micah Lee. The surviving passengers sought $400 million in damages, alleging that Tesla knowingly sold a defective Autopilot system. After deliberating for four days, the jury decided human error caused the accident.

Lee was driving a Model 3 when it veered off a highway, struck a palm tree and burst into flames — a crash that has become a focal point for some critics over concerns about the safety of Tesla's Autopilot system. Toxicology reports revealed that Lee had alcohol in his system, but was under the legal limit.

In the first case of its kind, plaintiff attorney Jonathan Michaels said that Autopilot was to blame for the crash. 

He said the system is released in "beta," which means it's still in a prototype phase. 

"Consumers need to be fully understanding and aware of what they're getting into when they get into these cars," said Michaels. 

Tesla argued it wasn't clear if Autopilot was even turned on and that the crash was caused by human error. It said in a statement its cars are "making the roads safer every day."

Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor and expert in driving automation from the University of South Carolina, said that regardless of what names Tesla uses for its features, "they are not full self-driving because they require a driver."

A disclaimer on Tesla's website says "the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous."