On a humid night in 2019, a Tesla Model S sedan sped through a Key Largo intersection at over 60 miles per hour. Behind the wheel was George McGee, who admitted he had dropped his phone while driving and thought Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot system would stop the car if an obstacle appeared. It didn’t. The vehicle slammed into a parked car and the couple standing beside it, killing 22-year-old Naibel Benavides and gravely injuring her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo.
Earlier this month, a Miami federal jury ruled that Tesla bore partial responsibility for the crash and ordered the company to pay $242.5 million in damages. For Elon Musk’s automaker, the verdict is more than a financial blow—it strikes at the heart of Tesla’s boldest bet: convincing the world that its self-driving technology, branded “Full Self-Driving” (FSD), is both safe and revolutionary.
Tesla has now filed a motion to appeal, asking a Florida federal court to toss out the jury’s decision or order a new trial. In filings, its legal team from Gibson Dunn argues the Model S was not defective, that driver error caused the crash, and that damages should be slashed. Compensatory damages, they argue, should not exceed $69 million, which would lower Tesla’s liability to $23 million. Punitive damages, they say, should also be capped under Florida law.
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For the plaintiffs, the verdict represented accountability. “This was not an indictment of autonomous vehicles, but of Tesla’s reckless and unsafe development and deployment of its Autopilot system,” said Brett Schreiber, lead trial counsel for the family.
The case is one of several courtroom battles casting a shadow over Tesla’s claims that FSD will one day eliminate road fatalities. And it arrives at a moment when consumer confidence in the brand—and its technology—is in decline.
The consumer backlash
Tesla has long marketed FSD as a breakthrough that would give drivers something close to a “personal chauffeur.” Owners can buy the system outright or subscribe for $99 a month, gaining access to automated lane changes, traffic-aware cruise control, and navigation on city streets. Yet manuals warn users to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, a contradiction that critics say shows Tesla overselling its system.
A new survey from Slingshot Strategies suggests that the marketing gap is catching up with the company. Out of 8,000 Americans polled, 35 percent said FSD makes them less likely to buy a Tesla, compared to just 14 percent who said it would increase their interest. Nearly half of the respondents said they believe such technology should be outright illegal. Among active EV shoppers, the numbers were scarcely better: only 20 percent said FSD made them more likely to buy a Tesla.
Evan Roth Smith, who led the research, said the findings point to a disconnect between Tesla’s bold claims and consumer perceptions.
“The company has the worst reputation of any EV maker in the U.S.,” he said.
That reputational slide comes at a vulnerable time. Tesla’s European sales plunged 40 percent in July, marking a seventh consecutive monthly decline, while competition from BYD in China and Hyundai-Kia in the U.S. is intensifying. Musk’s controversial political statements and open support for far-right groups in Germany have only deepened the brand’s headwinds in key markets.
The “self-driving” laggard
While Musk routinely calls FSD a “life-changing product” that can operate “in all conditions,” industry peers have steadily pulled ahead. Alphabet-owned Waymo, often treated as an underdog to Tesla, has quietly built a more reliable autonomous service. In Phoenix and San Francisco, Waymo operates fully driverless ride-hailing cars that carry paying passengers—without safety drivers in the front seat.
Baidu’s Apollo Go has launched robotaxis across several Chinese cities, likewise advancing to real-world deployments. Tesla, by contrast, is still testing supervised ride-hailing in Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Vehicles there still require human operators, either as supervisors or behind the wheel.
For Musk, the stakes are existential. He has said Tesla’s future depends on delivering autonomous driving at scale. The automaker still relies almost entirely on EV sales for revenue, and its product lineup is aging. A new Model Y variant was recently launched in China, but Musk admitted it may “never” reach U.S. production given the company’s push toward self-driving.
Yet convincing consumers is proving harder than engineering software. Tesla executives have acknowledged that even among its own customer base, adoption of FSD is weak.
Musk said on a recent earnings call that the vast majority of people don’t know it exists. CFO Vaibhav Taneja added that many owners who could subscribe simply haven’t.
Tesla is now pushing harder. The company is promoting FSD through service appointments, targeted outreach, and financing offers that bundle the system into new purchases. Last week, Tesla advertised 0% APR on the Model 3—if buyers added FSD or transferred it from a previous car.
Still, regulators, juries, and consumers remain wary.
A fragile future
The Florida wrongful death verdict is not the first courtroom test Tesla has faced over Autopilot, and it won’t be the last. U.S. safety agencies continue to probe Tesla crashes, while lawmakers debate stricter advertising and safety rules for partially automated systems.
The irony is that the trial’s outcome was not framed as an attack on autonomy itself—plaintiffs emphasized that companies like Waymo show it can be done responsibly—but on Tesla’s approach. As Schreiber put it: “The jury heard the facts and decided this was a case of shared responsibility… That doesn’t erase the role Autopilot… played.”
Tesla’s bet on self-driving is a wager on timing: that consumers will embrace FSD before rivals like Waymo or Baidu lock in market dominance. But as lawsuits mount, sales soften, and surveys show distrust growing, Tesla faces a sobering reality. Its fiercest competition may not be the regulators in Washington or Brussels—but the perception, now hardening among buyers, that Elon Musk’s vision of autonomy is less about safety and more about selling hope.