Well-known Tesla firmware hacker and data miner @greentheonly played a pivotal role in a recent landmark case against Tesla, helping uncover critical crash data the company initially claimed it did not have — reports The Washington Post. His discovery ultimately turned the tide in court, leading to a massive $243 million verdict against the automaker over a 2019 fatal crash in Key Largo, Florida.
The case stemmed from a collision in which a Tesla Model S, with Autopilot engaged, plowed into a young couple standing near their parked truck, killing 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and severely injuring her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo. While Tesla said it did not possess the electronic “collision snapshot” that captured what the car’s cameras saw in the final moments before impact, @greentheonly proved otherwise.
In 2024, after years of fruitless attempts to obtain the data through Tesla, the plaintiffs’ attorneys turned to the hacker. Working out of a Starbucks near Miami International Airport after being flown in from his home hundreds of miles away, @greentheonly successfully extracted the data from the vehicle’s Autopilot control unit. His findings confirmed that Tesla had received the crash snapshot within moments of the wreck — and that the information should have been accessible all along.
The recovered data revealed that the vehicle detected the pedestrians and plotted a path directly through them, raising serious questions about Autopilot’s performance. The jury deliberated less than a day before assigning Tesla 33% liability, awarding $129 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages. Of that, Tesla is responsible for $42.6 million in compensatory damages plus the entire punitive award, totaling $243 million. The company has said it plans to appeal.
Tesla reportedly attempted to quietly resolve the case before trial, offering the plaintiffs a confidential settlement. Court documents also show the company refused a $60 million settlement proposal before the trial concluded in the much higher $243 million judgment.
For Tesla, the outcome is one of the biggest legal setbacks yet involving Autopilot. The verdict not only highlights the role crash data can play in such lawsuits but also sets a precedent for how juries view Tesla’s handling of evidence. As other Autopilot-related cases move toward trial, @greentheonly’s intervention in this case underscores just how critical transparency around Tesla’s “computer on wheels” really is.
I don't care if Green found data that showed Tesla had secret plans to run over any and all pedestrians in its paths, it doesn't change the fact that this was on Autopilot, a system that is driver "assist" not autonomy. Just like Cruise control, if you get in an accident it means you weren't in control of the vehicle which is how ALL driver assist systems operate….under human control! The fact that Tesla was found only 33% responsible yet facing $243M in damages is ludicrous, it just points to the bias of the jury and will easily be won at appeal!
I don’t care whethr or not you don’t care. Perhaps you missed the point: Tesla is facing $43M in damages for the accident. And perhaps if they’d marketed their system as Autoassist rather than Autopilot they’d have faced even less than $43M. The remaining $200M is punitive damages, presumably for years of withholding evidence, essentially lying to the court
Well, we shall see. There will be an appeal and I think that number will come down a lot if not completely vanish.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the number does come down a lot. Appeals courts often drastically reduce huge amounts initially awarded by juries. Frankly, I don’t know how one puts a number on the value of a human life, although I wouldn’t have much trouble assigning Putin a value of zero. Same with a couple of other guys I can think of.