Tesla has reached a settlement in a Florida wrongful death suit arising from a 2018 high-speed crash that claimed the life of a teenage passenger, according to court records. The settlement, confirmed by a court official on Monday, removed the electric automaker as a defendant shortly before a trial was scheduled to start in Fort Lauderdale state court.
Prior to the settlement, the case was slated to proceed against the estate of the teenage driver whose vehicle was involved in the collision. A court order on Sunday formally excised Tesla from the list of defendants, leaving only the driver’s estate named in the litigation. In a recent filing, counsel for the plaintiff said the claim against Tesla had been resolved.
Court records contain competing assertions about the circumstances leading to the crash. The parents of the driver have said a Tesla technician, without their knowledge, disabled software that had limited the vehicle’s top speed to 85 mph (137 kph). That alleged action is referenced in court filings but the terms of the settlement with Tesla were not made public.
Tesla has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the crash. The company has maintained in filings that the driver’s operation of the car was reckless and that the collision would have occurred "with or without a speed limiter," according to court records. Lawyers representing the driver’s estate have also denied the plaintiff’s allegations.
Requests for comment to Tesla and to the attorneys representing the plaintiff and the driver’s family were not immediately answered, the court records show.
The underlying accident occurred in 2018 when a 2014 Tesla Model S carrying two teenage occupants lost control on a curve. Court records state the 18-year-old driver was traveling at 116 mph in a zone posted with a 25 mph limit when he lost control and the vehicle collided with two concrete walls. Both the teenage driver and the teenage passenger were killed in the crash.
The Florida settlement is one of several legal matters involving Tesla and collisions with its vehicles. Court records indicate Tesla settled a wrongful death suit last year brought by the estate of a man who died in 2021 after his Tesla crashed and caught fire near Dayton, Ohio; Tesla denied wrongdoing in that case and the settlement terms were not disclosed.
In another high-profile matter, Tesla in February lost a bid in U.S. federal court in Florida to overturn a $243 million jury verdict tied to a 2019 crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S that killed a 22-year-old woman and left her passenger seriously injured. Tesla is pursuing an appeal of that verdict, according to court filings referenced in this case.
Details about the resolution reached in the Florida wrongful death suit arising from the 2018 crash have not been released publicly. The remaining claims against the driver’s estate were left to proceed as the automaker stepped out of the litigation. A court official confirmed the settlement on Monday, but did not provide additional information on the terms.
Contextual note - The court records and filings cited in this article present conflicting assertions about causation and responsibility. Plaintiffs have advanced claims involving alleged deactivation of a speed-limiting feature, while Tesla and the driver’s representatives have disputed those allegations and pointed to the driver’s conduct as the proximate cause of the tragedy.