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The family of a California man who died in a terrible accident while his Tesla was in “Autopilot” mode is suing the electric car maker for company and CEO claims Elon Musk that its self-driving technology is perfected and ready for the road.
Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez, 31, was crushed to death behind the wheel of a Model S he bought under the — apparently mistaken — belief he could drive alone, according to a lawsuit filed by Mendoza’s parents, Eduardo and Maria, and his brother Caleb, who was also seriously injured in the wreck February 18, 2023.
Teslafor its part, it claims that its cars have a “reasonably safe design as measured by the appropriate test under applicable state law” and that the accident “could have been caused in whole or in part” by “Giovanni Mendoza’s own negligent acts” and/or omissions.”
“[N]additional warnings would or could have prevented the alleged incident, alleged injuries, losses and damages,” the company responded in a court filing refuting the family’s claims.
The US government has slammed Tesla for exaggerating claims about the ability of their cars to drive themselves, and among the harshest critics is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
This was said by lawyer Brett Schreiber, who represents the Mendoza family The Independent“This is another example of Tesla using our public roads to research and develop its autonomous driving technology. The injuries suffered by the first responders and the death of Mr. Mendoza was completely preventable. Even worse, Tesla knows that many of its earlier model vehicles continue to drive on our roads today with the same defect that puts first responders and the public at risk.”
Schreiber said Tesla is putting cars on the road with an Autopilot feature he described as “ill-equipped to perform” and that instead of announcing a recall to correct the problem, the company is simply releasing new software and calling it an “update.”
“It’s this flurry of product launches that aren’t quite ready for the shock terminology,” Schreiber said.
Tesla officials did not respond to a request for comment Sunday. Messages sent to the legal team working to defend the automaker in the Mendoza case also went unanswered.
In their lawsuit, which was transferred from state to federal court this week, the Mendoza family says Giovanni, who worked at the bank, was one of “many members of the public” who were persuaded by public statements and online postings by Muskalong with Tesla’s extensive advertising efforts, that its cars were capable of driving themselves.
“Not only was he aware that the technology itself was called ‘Autopilot,’ he had seen, heard and/or read many of Tesla’s or Musk’s misleading claims on Twitter, Tesla’s official blog or in the media,” the complaint states. “Giovanni believed these claims to be true, and therefore believed that the ‘Autopilot’ feature with the ‘Full Self-Driving’ upgrade was safer than a human driver and could be trusted to operate safely on public highways independently.”
Taking the richest man in the world and Tesla on their word that its cars can operate autonomously, Giovanni bought a used model S in 2021 and regularly drove it on the highway using the Autopilot function, Mendoza’s complaint states.
“Based on statements Giovanni heard from Musk, Giovanni believed the vehicle to be a safer driver than a human and relied on it to perceive and react to traffic ahead,” the complaint states.
Soon after that Valentine’s Day last year, around 4 a.m., Giovanni was driving his Tesla northbound on Interstate 680, with Caleb in the passenger seat and Autopilot engaged, according to the complaint.
In the distance, a fire truck was parked diagonally across two lanes of traffic, with its emergency lights flashing, to divert oncoming cars from the crash site, the complaint continued. A second fire engine was said to be on the scene, along with two California Highway Patrol vehicles, all of which also had their emergency lights on.
As the brothers were walking down the road, the vehicle suddenly plowed into the first fire truck, slamming into it at a high rate of speed, according to the complaint.
“At the time of the collision, Giovanni was not in control of the subject vehicle, but instead was sitting passively in the driver’s seat with the ‘Autopilot’ function engaged,” the complaint continues. “In fact, data from Tesla itself indicated that the subject vehicle was in ‘autopilot’ ‘ approximately 12 minutes prior to the crash, with no accelerator or brake pedal applied by Giovanni during that time. The approximate speed of the subject vehicle was 71 mph during the 12 minute period.”
The data further showed that Giovanni “generally maintained contact with the steering wheel until the time of the crash,” according to the complaint.
“As a result of the collision, the subject vehicle sustained extensive frontal damage, crushing Giovanni’s body,” it said. “Giovanni survived, at least momentarily, but later died from injuries sustained in the crash.”
The complaint alleges that Tesla autopilot the system is faulty and cannot distinguish emergency vehicles from regular traffic, even with emergency lights on. Instead, it said, the autopilot saw “individual frames in the viewing system that were either very dark or very bright,” and completely missed the fire trucks and police cruisers, causing the crash, killing Giovanni and seriously injuring Caleb. Four firefighters suffered minor injuries, according to contemporary reports.
The complaint lists page after page of others Tesla goes down because of autopilotand accuses Tesla, and Musk in particular, of neglecting to iron out any existing bugs before releasing this feature to the public. He calls dozens of statements, claims and online posts by Musk himself as completely misleading, while knowing that Tesla is not capable of driving autonomously.
In one example, the complaint highlights a comment Musk made during a shareholder meeting in June 2014, where he said, “I’m confident that — in less than a year — you’ll be able to go from a freeway entrance to a freeway exit without touching any controls. ”
During a conference call with reporters in January 2016, Musk said that Tesla’s Autopilot feature is “probably better” than a human driver and that within two years, drivers will be able to remotely summon their Teslas from afar and show up anywhere, according to appeal.
Musk also “misleadingly suggests[ed]” in a statement posted on Tesla’s blog that the main challenge in launching fully self-driving vehicles was simply “lack of regulatory approval,” the complaint said. It says he appeared at an event in Palo Alto in 2019 called “Autonomy Day” and promised “over a million robo-taxis on the road,” without any steering wheels or pedals, by the end of 2019. In 2020, Musk claimed autonomy would be rolled out across Tesla’s product range next year.
However, the complaint states, Tesla knew all along that its cars couldn’t live up to the hype, and “undertook a broad campaign to cover up thousands of consumer reports of problems with [its] The ‘Autopilot’ feature, including collisions, unintended braking and unintended acceleration.” It accuses Tesla’s senior executives of training front-line employees to “refrain from writing recalls on customer reports.”
“When Tesla employees responded to customer reports in writing, it was only to reassure customers that the ‘Autopilot’ feature was working properly,” the complaint states. “Additionally, Tesla … forced consumers to sign nondisclosure agreements in order to receive warranty repairs,” the complaint said, a violation of California Civil Code.
In all, Tesla received “thousands of customer reports of problems with Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ system between 2015 and 2022, including over 1,000 crashes; over 1,500 complaints of sudden, unintentional braking; and 2,400 complaints of sudden acceleration,” the complaint states. At the same time, thousands of drivers took Tesla at its word that its cars could drive themselves, and “in fact [they are] incapable of safely handling a variety of routine road scenarios without driver input.”
“This has predictably led – and will continue to lead – to multiple collisions between Teslas and other vehicles or pedestrians, resulting in death or serious bodily injury,” the complaint states.
In a response filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Tesla argued that the “damages and injuries” suffered by Giovanni Mendoza and his brother, “if any, were caused by misuse or improper maintenance of the subject product in a manner not reasonably foreseeable by Tesla .”