Tesla must pay $42 of $329 million in damages after fatal Autopilot crash, jury says

$42 million, not $42

Okay folks, here's the financial breakdown.

Total compensatory damages, covering actual harms (tangible and intangible): $129 million. Punitive damages: $200 million. Sum: $329 million.

Punitive damages are capped at 3x compensatory damages, but that's not a factor here because it's less than 2x.

Tesla was assigned 33% of the blame. The driver is 67% to blame.

That gives Tesla a bill of ($129 million * 33%) + ($200 million), because the punitive damages were assessed against Tesla only. Total Tesla payout: $242 million.

The driver is liable for the rest: $87 million. Plaintiffs will presumably be able to extract a tiny fraction of that from insurance.