Tesla trial begins over whether ‘experimental’ autopilot caused driver’s death

Lawsuit claims company knowingly sold defective car that led to Micah Lee's 2019 death while Tesla blames classic human error'

The lawyer representing victims of a fatal Tesla crash blamed the company's autopilot driver assistant system, saying that a car company should never sell consumers experimental vehicles," in the opening statement of a California trial on Thursday.

The case stems from a civil lawsuit alleging that the autopilot system caused the owner of a Tesla Model 3 car, Micah Lee, to suddenly veer off a highway east of Los Angeles at 65mph (105km/h), where his car struck a palm tree and burst into flames.