Family of WA man killed by Tesla driver using Autopilot sues company

The father of a 28-year-old motorcyclist who was struck and killed by a Tesla driver using his car’s self-driving feature in 2024 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the electric vehicle company, alleging it knowingly sold “unreasonably dangerous” technology that caused the fatal Snohomish County crash.

The family of Jeffrey Nissen, a Stanwood resident, is seeking monetary damages and is demanding Tesla stop marketing and selling cars equipped with its autopilot and self-driving features until the company has proved they can be used safely.

“Tesla tells people that their cars can do more than they do, and people believe it,” Nissen’s father, Jeff Nissen, said by phone Monday. “And that’s what we want to avoid – having people believe a lie – because Tesla’s cars ain’t safe.”

Tesla did not respond Monday to an inquiry. The lawsuit comes as federal regulators have increasingly scrutinized the company’s “driver assistance” technology. The company has settled multiple lawsuits stemming from similar crashes, including two separate California collisions in 2019 that killed three, including a 15-year-old, Reuters reported.

Nissen was driving his Yamaha motorcycle eastbound on Highway 522 at Fales Road toward Monroe shortly before 4 p.m. on April 19, 2024, when he stopped with the flow of rush hour traffic. The 58-year-old Snohomish man traveling in a 2022 Tesla Model S was looking at his cellphone when his car struck Nissen from behind, court records show.

The Tesla continued moving forward and got stuck on top of Nissen, pinning him underneath his motorcycle and the car and crushing him to death, according to the complaint.

The Tesla driver told a Washington State Patrol trooper he was looking at his phone and using Autopilot when he heard a bang and felt his car lurch forward and run over a motorcyclist. He said he could not move his car in time to save Nissen, according to a probable cause affidavit.

A search warrant of the Tesla’s data showed the driver had enabled the self-driving feature about two minutes before the crash, and had his hands off the steering wheel for more than a minute, according to a copy of a State Patrol report published by NPR last year. The Tesla driver did not immediately respond Tuesday to an inquiry.

The Tesla gave its driver two audible warnings and a visual warning over the next two minutes because it did not detect any hands on the steering wheel, the data showed. According to the data, the car detected a possible collision and engaged its automatic emergency brake as it “closed the gap” with Nissen’s motorcycle, but the driver overrode it by pressing on his car’s accelerator pedal, NPR reported.

Tesla’s website describes the company’s Autopilot feature as a combination of cruise control and auto-steering. To enable the feature, drivers must first agree to keep their hands on the steering wheel “at all times.”

The company’s autopilot is not the same as its “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” feature, which enables some Teslas to drive themselves, change lanes, navigate around objects and make turns. The feature does not make a car autonomous, and the company’s website warns drivers to stay attentive and “not become complacent” while using it.

Whichever feature the driver was using, Tesla’s Autopilot and self-driving features are both prone to misuse – a behavior that the company’s deceptive marketing encourages, said Simeon Osborn, an attorney representing Nissen’s family.

The driver was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide. He has not been criminally charged in the crash, despite it happening nearly two years ago. The Snohomish County prosecuting attorney’s office is still reviewing the man’s case and could not provide an estimate of when a charging decision would be made, spokesperson Portia Kaleikini said by email Monday.

The Seattle Times typically does not name suspects until they have been charged with a crime.

Tesla’s marketing overpromises the safety and capabilities of its Autopilot and self-driving features and encourages drivers to overly rely on it, Osborn said. Meanwhile, the company has not done enough to prevent drivers – already bombarded by their car’s frequent visual and audible alerts – from tuning out important warnings, he said.

“They’re using these people as guinea pigs. As test subjects,” he said. “How many people are going to die before they take it off the market?”

Tesla has faced other wrongful-death lawsuits stemming from crashes involving drivers using their cars’ Autopilot or self-driving features, including after a 2023 collision in Idaho that killed four. That lawsuit is ongoing, court records show.

In August, a federal jury in Miami ordered Tesla to pay more than $240 million to the victims of a deadly crash in 2019. The Tesla driver in that case was using Autopilot and said he was distracted by his cellphone when he drove into a couple’s car, killing one person and injuring the other, the Associated Press reported.

The best outcome for Nissen’s family would be for Washington state legislators to bar Tesla from marketing and selling cars equipped with Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (Supervised) features until the technology is “completely and fully vetted,” Osborn said.

The attorney pointed to a decision last month by a California administrative judge, who described Tesla’s use of the term “autopilot” as misleading. The company was given 60 days to “take action” regarding its use of the term, according to a statement Dec. 16 by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

For Nissen’s family, however, the truly best outcome – seeing Jeffrey again – is an impossible one.

According to his father, Jeffrey Nissen was a “free-spirited kid.” He loved to ride his motorcycle every day, and proudly coached his stepson’s little league football team. With no biological children of his own, he treated his nephews, nieces and stepchildren “like they were his own,” his father said.

Nissen’s mother, Carrie Hutchinson, said her son was quiet, loyal and “just loved everybody.” He worked as a carpenter and planned to marry and have children with his girlfriend.

“I don’t want it to happen to anybody else what happened to my son,” Hutchinson said Tuesday by phone. “I want justice.”