Tesla settled a lawsuit filed by the family of 31-year-old Giovanni Mendoza Martinez, who died in February 2023 in California. His 2014 Model S, traveling at about 100 km/h, crashed into a fire truck that was blocking a lane after another accident. The victim's brother sustained serious injuries.
The peculiarity of the case lay in the technical condition of the car. The Model S used an early HW1 hardware platform, and Tesla's 2021 update, which improved the recognition of emergency vehicle warning lights, was incompatible with this hardware version. The plaintiffs argued that the system failed to react correctly to the flashing lights of the fire truck.
Furthermore, the lawsuit concerned not only the operation of Autopilot but also how Tesla described the system's capabilities. The court allowed the plaintiffs to use the company's and Elon Musk's public statements about Autopilot's capabilities as part of the case.
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. Tesla avoided a jury trial, which was scheduled to begin in the fall of 2026. The settlement itself does not imply a court-established fault of the company.