Kevin George Aziz Riad, 27, is accused of running a red light and slamming into a Honda Civic at 74 mph back in 2019, killing the driver and a passenger.
He faces two counts of vehicular manslaughter.
The crash killed Gilberto Alcazar Lopez, 40, of Rancho Dominguez and Maria Guadalupe Nieves-Lopez, 39, of Lynwood, who were in the Civic and were on their first date that night, relatives told the Orange County Register.
Riad and a woman in the Tesla were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
This is the first felony case in the United States against a driver using Tesla’s automated driving system.
A Tesla engineer testified that Riad had a hand on the steering wheel, but did not apply brakes in the six minutes before the crash.
RELATED: Federal traffic safety agency investigating Tesla crash that killed 3 in Newport Beach
A police officer testified in May that several traffic signs warning motorists to slow down were posted near the end of the freeway.
Tesla has said that autopilot and a more sophisticated “full self-driving” system cannot drive themselves and that drivers must pay attention and be ready to react at anytime.
Tesla’s autopilot system in general is the subject of two federal safety investigations.
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