Tesla has been linked to several accidents allegedly caused by autopilot malfunction. However, the EV manufacturer has emerged victorious over a Tesla Model S crash back in 2019, where the plaintiff accused Tesla of having faulty driver assistance software.

(Photo : Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Tesla Wins the Lawsuit

The jury of California state court decided that Tesla is not to blame for the accident that involved Justine Hsu, who filed a lawsuit against Tesla in 2020 when her Model S vehicle was sidetracked and crashed into a center median in Los Angeles.

The incident resulted in the plaintiff sustaining injuries such as a fractured jaw, missing teeth, and nerve damage. The lawsuit demanded $3 million in damages, claiming that the vehicle had software defects as well as design flaws with the airbags.

The EV manufacturer denied the blame for the accident, saying that the company already warns its drivers against using the autopilot feature in city streets, as mentioned in Endgaget. With that being acknowledged, Hsu was not awarded anything for damages.

Despite Tesla's victory in this case, there are still others they will need to account for concerning the same issue as well as its Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode. However, the recent case may help others with complaints on how to move forward with their own case.

The EV giant is no stranger to being blamed for this kind of incident, especially since autopilot and full self-driving mode in electric vehicles are relatively new. Tesla still has a lot of hoops to go through to make the feature work seamlessly to avoid being blamed for accidents.

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Tesla Autopilot Feature Can Detect Unusual Obstacles

Contrary to many claims of the feature's ability to function on its own, there is a recorded incident where the autopilot feature knew when to drive out of the way, despite an unusual obstacle on the road, which is a wheel that flew off another car.

Back in March, an integrated Tesla dashcam recording showed that the autopilot feature managed to swerve out of the way when an out-of-place tire found its way on the road, which had also caused another vehicle to be propelled up and crash down.

The vehicle in front of the Tesla caught the wheel that came off a pickup truck from the adjacent lane, which then made its way to the Tesla. It can be seen based on the road lines that the Tesla vehicle narrowly shifted sideways just to avoid the incoming rogue tire.

According to the person inside the Tesla, it was the autopilot feature alone that avoided the tire. The autopilot feature has been developed to function that way, which also has an Automatic Emergency Braking feature.

Although a driver is required to still be attentive of the road while using the self-driving or autopilot features, they might not be fast enough to react to such circumstances, which the autopilot feature managed to do well.

As reported by Electrek, the driver of the Kia vehicle that encountered the misplaced tire is unharmed in the accident. Thankfully, the driver of the Tesla avoided the same fate because of the Tesla feature.

Related: Tesla Staff Have Reportedly Shared Videos from Owners' Car Cameras