United States: Is a ban on Tesla’s autonomous driving coming?

An unfortunate fatal accident, involving a motorcyclist who collided with a Tesla, is causing a huge controversy across the Atlantic.

The Robotaxi from Tesla, which is betting everything on 100% autonomous driving, sees its future clouded once again. This time, it’s all of Tesla that is in turmoil, with a stock drop of more than 6.5% on Thursday, August 1, 2024, following judicial developments related to a fatal accident that occurred last April involving a Model S with Autopilot and the Full Self-Driving (100% autonomous) feature activated, which struck a 28-year-old motorcyclist stopped at a traffic light.

Also in April 2024, Tesla settled a legal case by agreeing to a secret financial deal concerning an accident that occurred in 2018. An Apple engineer lost his life after his Model X, operating in Autopilot mode, deviated from its path on a highway near San Francisco.

The problem for Tesla is that cases of fatal accidents are multiplying, and Elon Musk does not seem to be very concerned about it. Staying true to his “Crash and Learn” approach—for both SpaceX rockets and the autonomous driving of his Tesla cars—he believes that one must break eggs to make an omelette. But the toll is dramatic.

Towards a National Class Action?

Today, the case of the motorcyclist who died in April 2024 takes on a new dimension. Indeed, the parents of another motorcyclist, who died in 2022 in an accident involving a Tesla Model 3 in Autopilot mode in Utah, have filed a lawsuit against Tesla and the driver. They claim that the safety systems and the driving assistance software have defects. Landon Embry, 34 years old, lost his life after his Harley Davidson was struck by a Model 3 in Autopilot mode traveling between 75 and 80 miles per hour.

The legal document states that the driver of the Model 3 was “fatigued” and “unable to drive prudently.” The lawsuit emphasizes that the Autopilot sensors, such as the cameras, “should have detected the danger posed by the motorcycle on the road.” “A prudent driver, or an effective automatic braking system, could have slowed down or stopped to avoid the collision with the motorcycle,” the document specifies.

In the United States, Class Actions are very common and can cost a company billions of dollars if found guilty. And it is precisely this threat that seems to be driving investors away, as reflected in the stock price decline.

Could this complicate the deployment of the Robotaxi? Hopefully, as the technology is clearly not ready! One cannot play with the lives of Tesla drivers, but also with those of other road users.

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