A Texas Cybertruck owner claims her vehicle tried to drive straight off an overpass while in Full Self-Driving mode. Now she’s suing Tesla and arguing the company was negligent for hiring and keeping Elon Musk as CEO.
The case is the latest in a series of lawsuits Tesla has faced over its Full Self-Driving feature. In 2024, the company began adding “(Supervised)” to the end of the feature’s name and emphasizing that drivers must keep their attention on the road while using it. That language now appears in the Cybertruck owner’s manual.
It also comes just a week after a judge upheld a $243 million jury verdict in a case involving a fatal 2019 crash tied to Tesla’s Autopilot feature in Florida. In February, the California Department of Motor Vehicles also announced that Tesla had stopped using the term “Autopilot” in marketing its vehicles in the state, calling the label misleading. The change allowed Tesla to avoid a 30-day suspension of its dealer and manufacturer licenses in California.
In this latest Texas case, the plaintiff, Justine Saint Amour, says she purchased her Cybertruck in February 2025. A few months later, on August 18, while driving in Houston with autopilot engaged, she approached a Y-shaped overpass. According to the lawsuit, the vehicle failed to curve to the right and instead continued straight toward a concrete barrier and the freeway below.
The plaintiff alleges she disengaged autopilot and attempted to regain control. Unfortunately, she was unable to avoid crashing into the barrier.
Now, the plaintiff is arguing that Tesla is responsible for the crash due to its engineering choices and allegedly misleading marketing. The lawsuit also singles out Musk personally.
“Elon Musk is an aggressive and irresponsible salesman, who has a long history of making dangerous design choices, and over-promising the features of his products,” the lawsuit reads. “The promotion of products, for capabilities they do not have, is the reason for this incident, and many others.”
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Tesla engineers had recommended using LiDAR sensors for its self-driving vehicles, the tech used by its competitors such as Waymo. The filing claims Musk chose to rely solely on less expensive video cameras.
Musk has publicly stated that LiDAR is a “fool’s errand” and that “anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed.”
Beyond claims that Tesla was negligent for not using LiDAR technology and for failing to properly warn drivers about the limitations of its self-driving features, the lawsuit also takes issue with Musk’s leadership role at the company.
The lawsuit claims Tesla is guilty of negligence for “hiring and retaining Elon Musk as CEO, and allowing him to participate in product design decisions,” as well as “allowing Elon Musk to override the concerns of engineers at Tesla.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo.
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