World News for Students of English

27-04-2023 07:00

Tesla has scored a major victory in a California court as a jury found the electric car maker’s Autopilot feature was not at fault in a crash.

The case is believed to be the first trial related to an accident involving partially autonomous driving software. Plaintiff Justine Hsu had sued Tesla, claiming that her Model S vehicle swerved into a curb while using autopilot, which lead to a violent airbag deployment that caused her serious injuries. She had sought more than 3 million dollars in damages. Tesla denied any liability, arguing that Hsu had used the software on city streets, despite a user manual warning against doing so. The jury found that Tesla hadn’t intentionally failed to disclose facts and that the airbag hadn’t failed.

The verdict is expected to have implications for other upcoming trials relating to semi-autonomous driving systems.

Difficult words: plaintiff (a person who brings a case against another in a court of law), swerve (to change direction suddenly), semi-autonomous (acting partially independently).

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