A Tesla owner in California has been charged with two counts of manslaughter after crashing into another vehicle and killing two people, according to media reports. His car was in Autopilot at the time of the accident.
This appears to be the first time a car owner using semi-autonomous driving technology has been charged with a felony in a fatal crash. New York state prosecutors charged Tesla owner Kevin George Aziz Riad last October, court records show, though detailed documents were not released until recently.
The fatal incident occurred in the Los Angeles suburbs in December 2019, when Riad’s Model S sedan left the highway, ran a red light, and crashed into a Honda Civic, media reported, citing police reports. Two people in the Civic were killed in the crash, and their families are filing separate criminal charges against Tesla and the Riad.