New York
Tesla’s Autopilot system is in the spotlight at a Miami trial over a student killed while stargazing
NEW YORK (AP) — A rare trial against Elon Musk’s car company began Monday in Miami where a jury will decide if it is partly to blame for the death of a stargazing university student after a runaway Tesla sent her flying 75 feet through the air and severely injured her boyfriend.
Lawyers for the plaintiff argue that Tesla’s driver-assistance feature called Autopilot should have warned the driver and braked when his Model S sedan blew through flashing red lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at nearly 70 miles an hour in the April 2019 crash. Tesla lays the blame solely on the driver, who was reaching for a dropped cell phone.
“The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla’s Autopilot technology,” Tesla said in a statement.
The driver, George McGee, was sued separately by the plaintiffs. That case was settled.
A judgement against Tesla could be especially damaging as the company works to convince the public its self-driving technology is safe during a planned rollout of hundreds of thousands of Tesla robotaxis on U.S. roads by the end of next year. A jury trial is rare for the company, whose suits over crashes are often dismissed or settled, and this one is rarer yet because a judge recently ruled that the family of the stricken Naibel Benavides Leon can argue for punitive damages.
The judge, Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued a partial summary judgement last month, throwing out charges of defective manufacturing and negligent misrepresentation against Tesla. But she also ruled plaintiffs could argue other claims that would make the company liable and ask for punitive damages, which could prove costly.
The 2021 lawsuit alleges the driver relied on Autopilot to reduce speed or come to a stop when it detected objects in its way, including a parked Chevrolet Tahoe that Benavides and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, had gotten out of near Key West, Florida, to look up at the sky. The Tesla rammed the Tahoe at highway speeds, causing it to rotate and slam into Benavides, tossing her into a wooded area and killing her.
In legal documents, Tesla denied nearly all of the lawsuit’s allegations and said it expects that consumers will follow warnings in the vehicle and instructions in the owners’ manual, as well as comply with driving laws. Tesla warns owners in manuals that its cars cannot drive themselves and they need to be ready to intervene at all times.
Plaintiff lawyers argue that Tesla should have a geofenced its Autopilot so it only worked on the big roads it was designed for and drivers couldn’t use it on smaller roads such as the rural one where Benavides was killed. They also say data and video evidence shows the Autopilot did detect the Tahoe but then failed to warn the driver as they claim it should have done.
Tesla has since improved its driver-assistance and partial self-driving features, but still faces lawsuits and investigations over what critics say is a gap between its exaggerated depictions of how well they work and what they can actually do.
Federal auto safety regulators recalled 2.3 million Teslas in 2023 for problems with Autopilot failing to sufficiently alert drivers if they weren’t paying attention to the road. They then put Tesla under investigation last year for saying it fixed the problem though it was unclear it actually did that.
Musk has also continued to make public comments suggesting Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology, a more advanced version of Autopilot, allows cars to drive themselves, despite warnings from regulators not to do so because it could lead to overreliance on the systems, crashes and deaths. That technology has been involved in three fatal crashes and is under investigation of its ability to see in low-visibility conditions such as sunlight glare or fog.
California
LA man dies in jail while awaiting trial for killing and dismembering wife, her parents
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, her mother and her stepfather has died in jail while awaiting trial, authorities said Monday.
Samuel Bond Haskell, 37, was found dead Saturday in his cell in a downtown Los Angeles jail and died by suicide, a statement from the LA County district attorney said.
He was accused of killing his wife and the mother of his three children Mei Haskell, 37, along with her mother, 64-year-old Yanxiang Wang, and stepfather, 72-year-old Gaoshan Li. Haskell had pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. His next pretrial hearing had been scheduled for Monday.
Haskell is the son of Emmy-winning television producer Sam Haskell, a former executive at the powerful William Morris talent agency.
An email seeking comment from his attorney and family wasn’t immediately answered.
The attorney, Joe Weimortz, told NBC4 that Haskell had been willing to waive a preliminary hearing where evidence would be presented publicly and to waive a jury trial because of the effect it would have on his children. Weimortz said Haskell was “not afraid of prison, but was afraid of an even larger media spectacle.” He added that “The Haskell family grieves every single life lost in this case.”
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement that by killing himself, Haskell had escaped justice and denied the victims’ relatives a chance to face him. Haskell had faced the possibility of life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted.
In their statement, prosecutors laid out the evidence they intended to present against Haskell.
They allege that he killed the three victims on Nov. 6, 2023, in the house they all shared in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The following day, prosecutors say, he paid day laborers $500 to remove heavy plastic trash bags from the property. After driving away, they discovered body parts in the bags. They returned the bags and the money to Haskell’s house and called police, but no one was home and the bags were gone when officers arrived.
Prosecutors said they obtained a video of Haskell putting a black plastic bag into a dumpster, and another of him transferring trash bags between his wife’s Tesla and an SUV he had rented.
Later the same day, a man going through a dumpster discovered a beheaded torso later determined to belong to Mei Haskell.
Samuel Haskell, who had been staying at an Airbnb with his children since the killings, was arrested on Nov. 8, 2023.
From the family home, police recovered eight plastic bags whose contents included bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood and canes belonging to the older victims.
The bodies of Wang and Li have not been found, but bloodstains on a gun and knife found in the rented SUV matched the DNA of all three victims, authorities said.
Tesla’s Autopilot system is in the spotlight at a Miami trial over a student killed while stargazing
NEW YORK (AP) — A rare trial against Elon Musk’s car company began Monday in Miami where a jury will decide if it is partly to blame for the death of a stargazing university student after a runaway Tesla sent her flying 75 feet through the air and severely injured her boyfriend.
Lawyers for the plaintiff argue that Tesla’s driver-assistance feature called Autopilot should have warned the driver and braked when his Model S sedan blew through flashing red lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at nearly 70 miles an hour in the April 2019 crash. Tesla lays the blame solely on the driver, who was reaching for a dropped cell phone.
“The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla’s Autopilot technology,” Tesla said in a statement.
The driver, George McGee, was sued separately by the plaintiffs. That case was settled.
A judgement against Tesla could be especially damaging as the company works to convince the public its self-driving technology is safe during a planned rollout of hundreds of thousands of Tesla robotaxis on U.S. roads by the end of next year. A jury trial is rare for the company, whose suits over crashes are often dismissed or settled, and this one is rarer yet because a judge recently ruled that the family of the stricken Naibel Benavides Leon can argue for punitive damages.
The judge, Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, issued a partial summary judgement last month, throwing out charges of defective manufacturing and negligent misrepresentation against Tesla. But she also ruled plaintiffs could argue other claims that would make the company liable and ask for punitive damages, which could prove costly.
The 2021 lawsuit alleges the driver relied on Autopilot to reduce speed or come to a stop when it detected objects in its way, including a parked Chevrolet Tahoe that Benavides and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, had gotten out of near Key West, Florida, to look up at the sky. The Tesla rammed the Tahoe at highway speeds, causing it to rotate and slam into Benavides, tossing her into a wooded area and killing her.
In legal documents, Tesla denied nearly all of the lawsuit’s allegations and said it expects that consumers will follow warnings in the vehicle and instructions in the owners’ manual, as well as comply with driving laws. Tesla warns owners in manuals that its cars cannot drive themselves and they need to be ready to intervene at all times.
Plaintiff lawyers argue that Tesla should have a geofenced its Autopilot so it only worked on the big roads it was designed for and drivers couldn’t use it on smaller roads such as the rural one where Benavides was killed. They also say data and video evidence shows the Autopilot did detect the Tahoe but then failed to warn the driver as they claim it should have done.
Tesla has since improved its driver-assistance and partial self-driving features, but still faces lawsuits and investigations over what critics say is a gap between its exaggerated depictions of how well they work and what they can actually do.
Federal auto safety regulators recalled 2.3 million Teslas in 2023 for problems with Autopilot failing to sufficiently alert drivers if they weren’t paying attention to the road. They then put Tesla under investigation last year for saying it fixed the problem though it was unclear it actually did that.
Musk has also continued to make public comments suggesting Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology, a more advanced version of Autopilot, allows cars to drive themselves, despite warnings from regulators not to do so because it could lead to overreliance on the systems, crashes and deaths. That technology has been involved in three fatal crashes and is under investigation of its ability to see in low-visibility conditions such as sunlight glare or fog.
California
LA man dies in jail while awaiting trial for killing and dismembering wife, her parents
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man accused of killing and dismembering his wife, her mother and her stepfather has died in jail while awaiting trial, authorities said Monday.
Samuel Bond Haskell, 37, was found dead Saturday in his cell in a downtown Los Angeles jail and died by suicide, a statement from the LA County district attorney said.
He was accused of killing his wife and the mother of his three children Mei Haskell, 37, along with her mother, 64-year-old Yanxiang Wang, and stepfather, 72-year-old Gaoshan Li. Haskell had pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. His next pretrial hearing had been scheduled for Monday.
Haskell is the son of Emmy-winning television producer Sam Haskell, a former executive at the powerful William Morris talent agency.
An email seeking comment from his attorney and family wasn’t immediately answered.
The attorney, Joe Weimortz, told NBC4 that Haskell had been willing to waive a preliminary hearing where evidence would be presented publicly and to waive a jury trial because of the effect it would have on his children. Weimortz said Haskell was “not afraid of prison, but was afraid of an even larger media spectacle.” He added that “The Haskell family grieves every single life lost in this case.”
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement that by killing himself, Haskell had escaped justice and denied the victims’ relatives a chance to face him. Haskell had faced the possibility of life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted.
In their statement, prosecutors laid out the evidence they intended to present against Haskell.
They allege that he killed the three victims on Nov. 6, 2023, in the house they all shared in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The following day, prosecutors say, he paid day laborers $500 to remove heavy plastic trash bags from the property. After driving away, they discovered body parts in the bags. They returned the bags and the money to Haskell’s house and called police, but no one was home and the bags were gone when officers arrived.
Prosecutors said they obtained a video of Haskell putting a black plastic bag into a dumpster, and another of him transferring trash bags between his wife’s Tesla and an SUV he had rented.
Later the same day, a man going through a dumpster discovered a beheaded torso later determined to belong to Mei Haskell.
Samuel Haskell, who had been staying at an Airbnb with his children since the killings, was arrested on Nov. 8, 2023.
From the family home, police recovered eight plastic bags whose contents included bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood and canes belonging to the older victims.
The bodies of Wang and Li have not been found, but bloodstains on a gun and knife found in the rented SUV matched the DNA of all three victims, authorities said.
