There are few things Tesla loves doing more than settling lawsuits related to the safety of its driver assistance software. The Austin, Texas-based automaker just reached confidential settlements that resolve two separate lawsuits over deaths in two different 2019 California crashes that both involved Tesla's Autopilot driver assistance software. These settlements came just a few weeks after a jury in Florida ordered Tesla to pay out $243 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the victims of a third fatal crash involving a Tesla that was equipped with Autopilot.
That decision was handed down after Tesla rejected a $60 million settlement proposal from the Florida lawsuit. The trio of settlements is significant for the automaker as much of its $1.4 trillion valuation is wrapped up in the idea of rapidly expanding Tesla's robotaxi and full self-driving programs, according to Reuters. If Tesla can't even get basic ADAS right, what are the chances it'll be able to pull off something as complicated as an end-to-end autonomous vehicle?
These are the two California lawsuits, according to Reuters:
One lawsuit, the settlement notice for which was filed on Tuesday, relates to the death of a 15-year-old boy who was traveling in Alameda County, California, with his father in a vehicle when it was rear-ended by a Tesla Model 3, which had Autopilot engaged, causing the victim's vehicle to roll over and crash into the center barrier. The boy succumbed to his injuries from the collision.
The other case relates to the death in December 2019 of two people who were traveling through an intersection in Gardena, California, in a Honda Civic when a Tesla Model S, equipped with Autopilot, failed to stop at a red light at high speed and crashed into the victims' vehicle.
The settlement in the Gardena case is only with the automaker. There is still a trial that is set to continue against the Model S's driver and some other defendants, according to Reuters.
Neither settlement disclosed how much money would be handed over. They simply said that the dismissal of the lawsuits was conditioned on the "satisfactory completion of specified terms."
Of course, these lawsuits are just a drop in the bucket compared to the sheer number of them that Tesla is currently up against. Earlier this week, we told you about a lawsuit that alleged Tesla preferred visa holders over American workers to keep wages low. We've also told you about a lawsuit claiming Tesla could be overstating mileage by as much as 117% and another one in France having to do with "deceptive marketing practices."
None of those are Tesla's lawsuit bread and butter, though. No sir. Those really start piling up when you look at lawsuits related to the automaker's ADAS software. In June,thousands of Australians sed Teslas over a phantom braking problem. Its robotaxi software was probed by the feds just one day after it was launched, and it faced a 30-day stop-sale in California earlier this Summer.