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Hey everybody. 
Welcome back to the Elon Musk 

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podcast This. 
Is a show where we discuss the 

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critical crossroads that shape 
SpaceX. 

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Tesla X, The Boring Company and 
Neurolink I'm your. 

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Host will. 
Walden. 

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A federal jury in Miami ordered 
Tesla to pay 43, excuse me, $243

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million last month after a 2019 
crash in Florida killed 22 year 

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old Nabel Benavides Leon and 
left her boyfriend Dylan Angelo 

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with life changing injuries. 
Of the verdict hanged on a 

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single file that Tesla said did 
not exist until a hacker found 

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it inside a Starbucks. 
How did Tesla lose critical 

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crash data tied to its own 
Autopilot system, then claim it 

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didn't exist, only to have it 
recovered by a third party years

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later? 
A hacker. 

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Now this raises doubts about how
Tesla stores, retrieves, and 

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controls access to information 
that can make or break lawsuits 

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about its driver assistance 
features. 

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Tesla denied withholding the 
file and said it couldn't locate

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it. 
But the jury didn't buy that 

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explanation, especially after 
the plaintiff's team proved the 

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data had been on Tesla servers 
all along. 

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Now, the crash occurred on April
25th, 2019 in Key Largo. 

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George McGee was driving a Tesla
Model S on Autopilot when he 

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looked away from the road to 
pick up his dropped phone. 

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Car slammed into Anglo's truck, 
parked at the end of a dark Rd. 

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where Anglo and Benavides Leon 
stood behind hazard reflectors. 

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McGee later settled separately, 
admitting he was using Autopilot

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at the time. 
But the civil lawsuit targeted 

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Tesla, accusing the company of 
negligence for allowing 

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Autopilot to operate on that 
road and for failing to alert 

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the driver of the situation. 
Now, Tesla told the court didn't

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have the collision snapshot, 
which is a key internal data 

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file that logs exactly what the 
vehicle saw, sensed and planned 

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in the moments before a crash. 
Plaintiffs believed it would 

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show that the car failed to 
detect the couple, failed to 

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warn the driver and proceeded 
with a deadly maneuver. 

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Tesla eventually said it had 
simply missed the file. 

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In reality, a hacker known 
online as Green The only found 

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it. 
That discovery happened inside 

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of Miami Starbucks. 
The hacker, who had spent years 

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reverse engineering Tesla's 
hardware, ran a forensic image 

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of the vehicle's Autopilot 
controlling unit on his laptop 

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and found the deleted file 
within minutes. 

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He also found evidence that 
Tesla had received the data 

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moments after the crash, meaning
the company had a copy from the 

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start and test to confirm this 
in court. 

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Calling oversight clumsy but 
denied any intent to deceive. 

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Now, the Miami jury didn't need 
long to deliberate and ruled 

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that Tesla was 33% liable for 
the crash and ordered the 

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company to pay damages. 
The remaining responsibility 

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fell on the driver. 
The plaintiffs attorneys argued 

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that Tesla misled investigators 
and withheld access to vital 

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evidence for years. 
They said Tesla attempted to 

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settle quietly before trial, but
the family wanted the truth 

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public now. 
Court records reveal the data 

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had indeed been uploaded to 
Tesla servers automatically 

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after the crash, but according 
to internal testimony, it was 

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then unlinked test, the standard
protocol for separating vehicle 

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data from specific incidents. 
Later, an engineer testified 

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that someone had likely taken 
affirmative action to delete the

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central server copy as well, 
although the court found no 

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evidence this was intentional, 
and the judge ordered Tesla to 

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reimburse the plaintiffs for 
costs related to data recovery 

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now. 
That effort to recover the data 

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began years later, when Florida 
Highway Patrol turned over the 

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original Autopilot unit to the 
plaintiff's team. 

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The hacker flown in by the legal
team warned against Tesla's 

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request to boot up the unit, 
saying it could trigger 

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automatic updates that would 
overwrite the file. 

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Instead, he extracted the 
contents himself. 

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What he found was exactly what 
the family had been looking for,

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a complete record of what the 
Tesla saw as it speed toward the

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victims. 
By using that data, the hacker 

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generated A detailed augmented 
video for the courtroom. 

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Frame by frame. 
It showed the Tesla detecting a 

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car and then a pedestrian, yet 
continuing to plan a path 

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straight through their location.
Tesla argued the video proved 

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the driver had enough time to 
react, and the Plano said it 

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confirmed the system failed at 
every critical moment. 

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Tesla's legal team framed the 
situation as an honest mistake. 

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His lawyer told jurors the 
company would never hide helpful

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evidence, simply didn't realize 
the file had been preserved. 

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The plaintiff's attorneys 
described a pattern of 

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obstruction, arguing that Tesla 
had evidence before the cops 

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even arrived on the scene and 
only admitted to having it after

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they found another way to 
retrieve it. 

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Now, this was not Tesla's first 
trial involving Autopilot, but 

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it may be the most 
consequential. 

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The $240 million verdict marked 
the company's largest public 

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loss over its driver assistance 
tech to date. 

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Within weeks, investors filed a 
lawsuit in Texas accusing Tesla 

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of misleading the market about 
the safety and reliability of 

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its systems, citing the Miami 
case. 

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Other families are now preparing
similar claims, including one in

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California tied to the death of 
a 15 year old. 

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Federal regulators have 
repeatedly investigated Tesla 

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over Autopilot, and the system 
has been involved in dozens of 

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crashes, many fatal. 
Tesla has beaten two such 

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lawsuits in the past and settled
others before they reach trial. 

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But the Miami case added new 
pressure, producing internal 

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records, engineer testimony and 
digital files that other 

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plaintiffs will now use to build
their own cases. 

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One example is attorney Mark 
Dobin, who recently what a 

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refund for the $10,600 he paid 
for Full Self Driving Software 

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after an arbiter ruled Tesla 
never delivered the promise 

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features. 
He said Musk Musk's public 

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claims had created unrealistic 
expectations, and the Miami case

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showed what happens when the 
confidence turns deadly. 

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Tesla has declined us to comment
on the outcome, except to say it

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plans to appeal. 
A judge said she did not find 

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enough evidence that Tesla 
deliberately destroyed or 

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withheld the data, but she 
agreed the company had 

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mishandled it and ordered 
reimbursement of the cost 

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incurred by the plaintiffs to 
retrieve it. 

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The hacker who helped find the 
data says future cases may not 

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be so lucky. 
Tesla has since tightened its 

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security protocols, making it 
harder for independent analysts 

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to access internal crash data. 
Now they believe that's part of 

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the problem sometimes, he said. 
You just have to get the data 

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out. 
Hey, thank you so much for 

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listening today. 
I really do appreciate your 

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support. 
If you could take a second and 

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hit this subscribe or the follow
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Right. 
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And please take care of 
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I'll see you tomorrow.