San Francisco, United States

Elon Musk's Tesla Inc will soon defend itself for the first time against allegations that the company's Autopilot driver assistant feature led to the death of multiple people.

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The upcoming trial as per Reuters will be a major test of Tesla Chief Executive Musk's assertions about the technology.

The trials and Tesla

Tesla currently faces two trials, however, more are likely to follow. 

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The first, a civil lawsuit, is scheduled for mid-September at a California state court. It alleges that Tesla's autopilot system caused a man named Micah Lee's Model 3 vehicle to suddenly veer off a highway east of Los Angeles. As per the lawsuit, Tesla knowingly sold the car with defective safety systems.

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In 2019, the car which was travelling at the speed of 65 miles per hour, in a matter of seconds, crashed into a palm tree and burst into flames. The crash killed Lee, while the other two passengers, including an 8-year-old boy, were seriously injured.

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The second trial is scheduled for October in a Florida state court. This one, also from 2019, caused Stephen Banner's Model 3 to drive under an 18-wheeler big rig truck, which sheared off the Tesla's roof and killed the owner. 

What Tesla has to say

Tesla has repeatedly denied liability in both accidents and has blamed driver error. Musk's company says that "there are no self-driving cars on the road today," and claims that the Autopilot feature is safe when monitored by humans. In the Lee case, it also claimed that the driver (Lee) was driving under the influence of alcohol.

Reuters reports that these civil proceedings will probably reveal fresh evidence about what Musk and Tesla knew about the Autopilot feature's capabilities and deficiencies.

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Previously in April, Tesla won a bellwether trial — a small consolidation of similar cases taken from a larger group and tried first. The company at the time claimed that it told its drivers that despite the 'Autopilot' and Full Self-Driving' names, the technology requires human monitoring.

As per experts in the upcoming cases, the stakes are high for Tesla. "If Tesla backs up a lot of wins in these cases, I think they're going to get more favourable settlements in other cases," suggested Matthew Wansley, former General Counsel at nuTonomy, an automated driving startup, and currently an Associate Professor of Law at the Cardozo School of Law.

Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, says that "a big loss for Tesla, especially with a big damages award" could "dramatically shape the narrative going forward."

(With inputs from agencies)

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