Litigation mounts as Tesla faces lawsuit over fatal autopilot crash involving motorcyclist

The parents of 34-year-old motorcyclist Landon Embry, who died in a collision in 2022 with a Tesla Model 3 on Autopilot, filed a lawsuit against Tesla and the driver of the car, alleging that both driver assistance software and safety features are "defective and inadequate." The incident occurred in Utah; according to reports, the Model 3 was travelling at a speed of 75-80 miles per hour when it hit the back of Embry's Harley Davidson, tossing him off the bike and killing him.

Filed in state court in Salt Lake City, the lawsuit claims the Model 3 driver was "tired" and in no condition to drive, failing to act as a prudent driver would. It further faulted the Autopilot sensors—including cameras—for failing to detect the motorcycle as a hazard and claimed an adequate auto-braking system would have prevented the collision. "A reasonably prudent driver, or adequate auto braking system, would have, and could have slowed or stopped without colliding with the motorcycle," the complaint said.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment.

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This case puts more focus on Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, already under even greater scrutiny. In another recent case, a Seattle motorcyclist, 28, was struck and killed by a Tesla Model S running in Full Self-Driving mode. Tesla also settled a lawsuit in April over a 2018 crash in which a Model X operating on Autopilot wandered off a highway near San Francisco, killing an Apple engineer.

These incidents raise red flags over the safety and reliability of Tesla's advanced driver assistance technologies. As Tesla fights for the effectiveness of its systems, these lawsuits identify the risks and the need for strict safety standards.

To wrap up, the legal messes that Tesla has gotten itself into illustrate wider problems within the autonomous vehicle industry. As more accidents that implicate driver assistance technologies come to light, manufacturers are under increased pressure to ensure that their systems work and are safe. These rulings could create important precedents both for the future of autonomous driving technology and how it will be regulated.