Autopilot went wrong: Five Texas police officers sue Tesla seeking $20 million

Five Texas police officers took electric vehicle major Tesla to court over an accident that injured them. The lawsuit has been filed after seven months of the accident that took place in Splendora, Montgomery Country in Texas. The suit seeks up to $20 million in damages for multiple injuries, including claimed permanent disabilities.

The officers have reportedly filed the lawsuit through Buzbee Law Firm and Muery & Ferrell PC. They have alleged that Tesla has not done enough to address fundamental flaws in its famous Autopilot advanced driver assistance system. This is the latest incident when Tesla Autopilot has been blamed for wrong reasons.

The famous driver assisting technology is claimed to be a semi-autonomous driving technology. However, many drivers engage the Autopilot system and act as if it is a fully self-driving technology.

The lawsuit states that the five police officers were injured while they were performing a drug search on a vehicle they had stopped on the side of the Eastex Freeway. All of them were reported badly injured due to the accident involving a Tesla with Autopilot engaged.

The lawsuit reportedly says that due to the design and manufacturing defects known to Tesla, the EV maker’s failure to adequately warn of those defects, and its unwillingness to admit or correct such defects, the Autopilot and Tesla’s system safety features failed to detect the officers’ cars or to function in any way to avoid or warn of the hazard and subsequent crash.

A Tesla car slamming into a police car is not new. Just a few days ago a Tesla car with Autopilot engaged slammed into a police patrol car in Florida. The Florida police department has released the footage of the accident.

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