Justine Saint Amour, a Texas Cybertruck owner, is suing Tesla for more than $1 million plus punitive damages after her vehicle crashed into a concrete barrier on a Houston overpass while using the Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. Filed in Harris County District Court, the lawsuit alleges negligence in design, marketing, and retaining CEO Elon Musk, amid ongoing scrutiny of Tesla's driver-assistance technology.
Justine Saint Amour purchased a used Cybertruck equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) package from a Florida dealership in February 2025. On August 18, 2025, while driving on Interstate 69's Eastex Freeway in Houston with FSD engaged, the vehicle approached a Y-shaped overpass split near the 256 Eastex Park and Ride. According to the lawsuit, the Cybertruck failed to follow the curve to the right and drove straight toward a concrete barrier, captured on dashcam footage.
Saint Amour disengaged the system and attempted to steer but collided with the barrier. She sustained injuries including two herniated discs in her lower back, one in her neck, sprained tendons in her wrist, and neuropathy causing numbness, tingling, and weakness in her right hand.
Handled by Hilliard Law, the suit accuses Tesla of negligence, design defects (including lack of LiDAR sensors rejected by Musk in favor of cameras, and ineffective automatic emergency braking), and misleading marketing of the SAE Level 2 system as 'Full Self-Driving' despite requiring constant supervision. It specifically claims negligence in 'hiring and retaining Elon Musk as CEO, and allowing him to participate in product design decisions' and override engineers. The complaint quotes: 'Elon Musk is an aggressive and irresponsible salesman, who has a long history of making dangerous design choices, and over-promising the features of his products.' Musk has dismissed LiDAR as a 'fool’s errand.'
Attorney Bob Hilliard stated, 'What happened to my client was not an accident, but a foreseeable result of choices Tesla made knowingly, repeatedly, and without regard for the people on the road.'
The case follows a $243 million verdict upheld from a 2019 Autopilot crash and a December 2025 California ruling that Tesla's FSD marketing is 'actually, unambiguously false and counterfactual' (under appeal). The NHTSA is investigating 2.88 million Tesla vehicles with FSD after 58 incidents. Tesla has not publicly responded.
