From：Internet Info Agency 2026-09-03 12:15:09
Tesla has reached a confidential settlement in a lawsuit over a fatal crash that occurred in 2023, avoiding a jury trial. The accident took place around 4 a.m. on February 18, 2023, on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California. Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez, 31, was driving a 2014 Model S with Autopilot engaged at approximately 70 mph (about 113 km/h) when he collided with a county fire department ladder truck parked across the lane. The fire truck was responding to another incident at the time. Mendoza died at the scene, and his brother Caleb Mendoza, who was in the front passenger seat, sustained serious injuries. The case (Caleb Mendoza et al. v. Tesla, Inc., Case No. 24-cv-08738-VC), represented by the law firm Singleton Schreiber, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs’ attorneys alleged under California consumer protection laws that Tesla’s vehicle contained product defects and that the company misled consumers about the system’s capabilities through the name “Autopilot” and public statements made by its executives. In May 2025, presiding Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims of concealment but allowed their claim of fraudulent misrepresentation to proceed, ruling that the term “Autopilot” itself is “misleading” and that certain public statements are legally actionable. The settlement agreement has been filed with the federal court in California, though its specific terms remain undisclosed. This resolution aligns with Tesla’s typical approach to lawsuits involving fatal crashes linked to Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features—usually settling just before cases reach jury trials. The sole exception was a 2019 Florida Autopilot-related fatality case, in which a jury awarded $243 million in punitive damages against Tesla in September 2025; in February 2026, the judge denied Tesla’s motion to overturn the verdict. Since then, Tesla has accelerated settlements in pending litigation, including a June 2026 agreement in a pedestrian fatality case involving FSD. Public reports indicate Tesla currently faces approximately $14.5 billion in total claims related to Autopilot and FSD lawsuits.
