The statement comes in response to a claim filed by a 20-year-old student, Max Dryerman, who lost his entire family after their Tesla was involved in a fatal accident.
Tesla says that even though its cars have autonomous features, they are not “self-driving” cars, refuting the claims of a lawsuit filed by a New Jersey student who said the company’s faulty “autopilot” feature caused the deaths of his family members.
In June, Max Dryerman, a 20-year-old student from Woodcliff Lake, and his two aunts filed a wrongful death suit with a federal court at Camden, New Jersey, on behalf of the family estate, claiming the braking system and other safety features in their Tesla Model S were defective.
The lawsuit alleges that Tesla’s “autopilot” and other features, like forward collision warning and an advanced driver-assistance system, should have prevented the car from careening off the road.
Tesla attorneys are disputing the lawsuit’s claims and denying that the company is responsible for the fatal accident. They are refuting assertions in the lawsuit that Elon Musk himself publicly stated that the manufacturer’s “autopilot” feature is “probably better” than a person behind the wheel.
“Tesla denies the allegations related to a statement by Tesla CEO Elon Musk as an incomplete and out of context statement,” the response to the lawsuit says. Tesla’s defense attorneys also point out that while Tesla issued EVs with a “suite of driver assistance features,” those features do not make the car “self-driving.”
Mr. Dryerman was at school at Philadelphia’s Drexel University when his sister, Brooke, 17, and his parents, David and Michele, were killed in the crash at Woodbridge just before midnight on September 14, 2024.
The family was heading back to their Bergen County home after attending the Sea Hear Now music festival at Asbury Park. Their car was heading northbound on the toll highway when it suddenly ran off the road to its left, hitting a sign and guardrail before crashing into a concrete bridge support.
“Despite the vehicle camera system [detecting] an approaching stationary obstacle,” the original complaint states, “the vehicle continued — without braking or reduction in acceleration or engine torque — into the stationary obstacle.”
“Thousands of Tesla drivers have relied on Tesla’s [technology] as though it were capable of safe, fully autonomous self-driving … when in fact it is incapable of safely handling a variety of routine roadway scenarios without driver input.”
Both Mr. Dryerman and Tesla officials have requested a jury trial. The two sides are due to meet in a video conference before a U.S. magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey, Jessica Allen, later this month.
Mr. Chiaramonte was an investigative reporter and producer at Fox News, a correspondent for the New York Post, and a news editor for the Messenger.
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