Joshua Brown was the first person killed while using Tesla Autopilot in 2016, after his Tesla Model S collided with a tractor-trailer that was crossing his path on US Highway 27A near Williston, Florida. Three years later, another Tesla owner, 50-year-old Jeremy Beren Banner, was murdered on a Florida highway in hauntingly similar circumstances: his Model 3 crashed with a tractor-trailer that was crossing in front of him, tearing the roof off. Banner, too, was using Autopilot.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously blamed crashes involving Autopilot on driver overconfidence. “When there is a big accident, it is almost always, if not always, an experienced user, and the problem is more one of complacency,” Musk stated in 2018.
