05:40 AM EDT, 07/15/2025 (MT Newswires) -- (Update to add Tesla's response in seventh paragraph)

Tesla (TSLA) is heading to its first jury trial over a fatal crash involving its autopilot system, the New York Times reported Monday.

The case stems from an April 2019 crash in South Florida where a Tesla Model S, with autopilot engaged, struck a parked SUV, killing 22-year-old Naibel Benavides and seriously injuring her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo.

The report said the plaintiffs argue that the autopilot failed to stop the car or warn the distracted driver, George Brian McGee, who had dropped his phone while driving.

Although Tesla claims McGee was solely responsible, pointing to data showing he was accelerating manually, video evidence reportedly shows that the system detected the obstacles but didn't intervene, according to the New York Times.

It added that plaintiffs are expected to argue that Tesla misled consumers about the system's capabilities and failed to enforce driver attentiveness.

For the first time, the jury will weigh whether the autopilot is defective, and the court has allowed the plaintiffs to seek punitive damages, the report added.

"The evidence clearly shows that this crash had nothing to do with Tesla's Autopilot technology," Tesla said in a statement e-mailed to MT Newswires. "Instead...this was caused by a distracted driver."

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