Family of Florida Man Killed in Autopilot Crash Sues Tesla

Tesla Inc. was sued for the second time in three months by the family of a car owner who was killed in a crash while using the driver-assistance system Autopilot.

Jeremy Banner, 50, died when the Model 3 sedan he was driving failed to brake or steer to avoid a semi trailer that ran a stop sign on a Florida highway in March, according to the lawsuit, which also names the driver of the semi as a defendant. Banner had engaged the Autopilot system about 10 seconds before the collision.

Representatives for Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit, which alleges that the company knew its product was defective.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the crash in May and said data from the vehicle showed Autopilot was active at the time of the incident. The preliminary data indicated that neither the driver nor the Autopilot system executed evasive maneuvers.

Banner is survived by his wife and three children.

“We’re not just talking about the consequences of this defect to the Banner family, which is horrific,” Trey Lytal, a lawyer for the family, said during a press conference. “These products are defective.”

Lytal compared Banner’s crash with the one involving Joshua Brown, a Tesla Model S owner who died in a similar tractor trailer collision in 2016. The family of Walter Huang, an Apple Inc. engineer who died in a Model X last year in Mountain View, California, sued the company in May.

The case is Banner v. Tesla, 15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, Florida.