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Driver on Tesla Autopilot's Fatal Crash Faces Vehicular Manslaughter Counts

In 2019, a while after a Uber test vehicle killed Elaine Herzberg, Madeleine Clare Elish conceived the concept of moral crumple zones. Just like crumple zones in a car protect its occupants in a crash, moral crumple zones use humans to protect automated systems. A drive accused of vehicular manslaughter after using Autopilot demonstrates how that works.
Tesla Model S on Autopilot crashed against patrol car 18 photos
Photo: Laguna Beach Police Department
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In 2019, more specifically, on December 29, Kevin George Aziz Riad was traveling with a woman as a passenger in a Tesla Model S on Autopilot. The car left a freeway at high speed in Gardena, Los Angeles, and ran a red light, hitting a Honda Civic. The two occupants of that car – Gilberto Alcazar Lopez and Maria Guadalupe Nieves-Lopez – died. Riad and his passenger were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

California prosecutors decided to charge Riad with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. According to Associated Press, he pleaded not guilty. The family of the deceased couple in the Honda Civic is suing both Riad and Tesla. The Model S driver is being accused of negligence. The lawsuit against Tesla accuses it of selling defective vehicles that do not have functioning AEB (automatic emergency braking) systems.

Associated Press talked to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) about the charges against Riad. The safety agency said that no car currently for sale is autonomous and that “every vehicle requires the human driver to be in control at all times.” In other words, it thinks more cases involving any ADAS in fatal crashes should get similar legal results, with more drivers being accused of vehicular manslaughter and facing jail time. Despite that, NHTSA is investigating Autopilot for at least 12 crashes and one death related to how the system responds to emergency vehicles on the road.

Before Riad, Rafaela Vasquez was also charged with negligent homicide for the death of Herzberg. Vasquez was the driver in charge of monitoring the Uber autonomous vehicle that killed Herzberg. If his case is the first of many involving Autopilot and deaths associated with its use, Tesla may be accused of putting dangerous technology on the roads.

The company’s legal disclaimer about both Autopilot and FSD (Full Self-Driving) is that they are beta software, not ready yet for production. Anyone who uses them or even pays $12,000 for the mere possibility of that “right” willingly accepts to take the blame whatever happens. Ironically, it may be the case only until vehicular manslaughter charges knock on their doors.

Riad pleaded not guilty, which would automatically transfer the responsibility to the car and its manufacturer. With all of them being jointly judged by mid-2023, it will be enlightening to see what the U.S. law system thinks about that and the fact that Tesla allows common drivers to test beta software on public roads. If Riad works as an effective moral crumple zone, Tesla will not change its strategy.
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Editor's note: The gallery contains images of Autopilot crashes against emergency vehicles. We have found no images of the 2019 crash that killed Gilberto Alcazar Lopez and Maria Guadalupe Nieves-Lopez.

About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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