Federal judge Beth Bloom has denied Tesla’s request to overturn a $243 million jury verdict tied to a fatal Autopilot crash, ruling that the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to support the decision reached in August 2025. The court also found that Tesla failed to offer new arguments strong enough to unsettle the verdict.
The award includes $43 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages. According to the report, Tesla had previously turned down a $60 million settlement offer before trial.
A dropped phone and a deadly collision in Florida
The case stems from a 2019 crash in Key Largo, Florida. Driver George McGee had activated Autopilot in a Tesla Model S when he bent down to pick up a dropped phone. During those few seconds, the vehicle traveled at about 100 km/h, ran through a stop sign and a flashing red light, and struck a parked Chevrolet Tahoe.
22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon was killed at the scene, while Dillon Angulo, then 26, suffered serious injuries. Tesla argued that driver distraction, not Autopilot, caused the crash. The jury accepted part of that argument and assigned Tesla 33% of the responsibility.
Court rejects Tesla’s challenge to the verdict
In its post-trial motion, Tesla said the ruling ran against basic principles of Florida tort law and argued that references to Elon Musk’s public comments about Autopilot misled jurors. Bloom rejected both points and left the verdict in place.
The decision is already affecting other cases. Since the August 2025 jury ruling, Tesla has reportedly settled at least four additional fatal Autopilot lawsuits rather than taking them to trial again. One of those cases involved the death of a 15-year-old in California.
The Autopilot name is facing legal scrutiny too
Tesla’s legal pressure extends beyond crash liability. In December 2025, a California judge ruled that using “Autopilot” to describe the company’s driver-assistance features amounted to deceptive marketing under state law. The same judge reportedly described “Full Self-Driving” as an explicit false statement.
The report added that on February 18, two days before this verdict was upheld, Tesla agreed to stop using “Autopilot” as a standalone product brand name in the United States and Canada, and to clearly tell consumers that drivers must keep both hands on the steering wheel. Public claims about Tesla’s self-driving technology are now being tested in court as much as on the road.