This week, a federal court in Miami started hearing a wrongful death case involving Tesla's crash-prone Autopilot driver assistance system. It's not the first time that Tesla Autopilot has been implicated in fatal traffic crashes, but it is the first time that a federal court has heard such a case.

A Miami courtroom is hearing emotional testimony in a rare federal case scrutinizing Tesla’s driver-assist tech and Elon Musk’s safety claims

Mr. Musk has said on many occasions since Autopilot was rolled out in 2015 that the system is much safer than human drivers and has claimed that Tesla’s technology was close to being able to pilot cars with no driver. Tesla uses the name Full Self-Driving for an advanced version of Autopilot, although it still requires drivers to remain attentive.