In August 2025 a Miami federal jury found Tesla partly liable for a 2019 crash that killed Naibel Benavides, awarding about $243 million (mostly punitive). It was the first US verdict tying a death to Autopilot, and in February 2026 the judge declined to toss it; Tesla is appealing. That is a real, serious case. But one verdict over a single 2019 incident doesn't establish that the system is broadly unsafe. The driver, George McGee, was reaching for a dropped phone and pressing the accelerator — overriding the car — when it ran a stop sign at ~60 mph; the jury still assigned him the majority of fault. Across the fleet, Tesla's Vehicle Safety Reports show roughly one crash per 6+ million miles with Autopilot engaged versus a US average near 700,000 miles. A tragic misuse case on appeal is not proof of a defective product.