Tesla Settles Fatal 2023 Autopilot Fire Truck Lawsuit to Avoid Jury Trial

Tesla reached a confidential settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit regarding a February 2023 crash where a Model S operating on Autopilot struck a parked fire truck. The collision occurred at approximately 70 mph, resulting in the death of the driver and causing severe injuries to a passenger in the vehicle. The agreement allowed the automaker to bypass a jury trial after a federal judge ruled that the Autopilot naming convention was plausibly misleading and that public statements about the system were actionable. Tesla currently faces up to $14.5B in total legal liability from a growing docket of Autopilot and Full Self-Driving lawsuits. This resolution follows a separate 2019 Autopilot death case in Florida that resulted in a historic $243 million verdict against the company, which a judge refused to throw out earlier this year.