Brett Schreiber, Partner at Singleton Schreiber in San Diego and Wailuku, was featured in a recent Law.com article, "Tesla’s Alleged Autopilot Failure Faces Punitive Damages in Crash," which was published on June 27, 2025, and reports how a federal judge has denied Tesla's attempt to dismiss the wrongful-death lawsuit, allowing punitive damages to be pursued, and that a trial is set for July 14th at Miami Federal Court, where Tesla's liability and safety concerns related to autonomous driving will be a central focus of the trial.
The Benavides v. Tesla Inc. lawsuit revolves around a Key Largo crash on April 25, 2019, where a Tesla Model S, allegedly on Autopilot mode, ignored stop signs, resulting in the death of Naibel Benavides and severe injury to Dillon Angulo. The driver, who is not a defendant, testified that he was distracted and allegedly received no alerts before the collision, contradicting Tesla's consistent argument that its Autopilot features are intended for "fully attentive" drivers holding the steering wheel and do not render its vehicles autonomous.
In her 98-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom cited Tesla’s refusal to geo-fence Autopilot despite known risks, determining that the plaintiffs may pursue design defect and failure to warn claims against the automaker. According to Judge Bloom's ruling, plaintiffs had pointed to numerous public statements by Tesla that arguably misrepresented the Autopilot system's risks and limitations. She found that based on evidence indicating Tesla was capable of curing the issue but refused to geo-fence the system, a reasonable jury could find Tesla acted in reckless disregard of human life for the sake of developing its product and maximizing profit.
Law.com notes that Judge Bloom's ruling, set for trial amidst ongoing NHTSA investigations into Autopilot’s safety and a 2023 recall of 2 million vehicles, further highlights Tesla’s liability and raises questions about regulatory oversight.
