Tesla was ordered to pay $243 million in damages after a bug bounty hacker proved the company did have access to fatal Autopilot crash data it claimed did not exist. The lawsuit stemmed from a March 2024 crash in which a self-driving Tesla struck a parked car, killing Naibel Benavides Leon and seriously injuring Dillon Angulo. A jury found Tesla partially at fault in August 2025, and a judge denied the company's appeal in February 2026. The hacker, known as @greentheonly, recovered the crash data while working through Tesla's Bug Bounty program, which paid him $15,000 for reporting software vulnerabilities. Tesla has since changed the names of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features to clarify that drivers must remain attentive.
Tesla IncCourt ordered Tesla to pay $243M after evidence showed it had fatal Autopilot crash data it denied, and it lost appeal.
