it doesn't take a genius to realize that coffee is hot. They'll let people sue for anything these days, McDonalds should have settled just to get her out of their face and the lady shouldn't hold a hot cup of coffee between her legs WHILE her son is driving.
Here's what really happened: McDonald's offered free refills for coffee. Obviously it costs money to actually _give_ customers these free refills, so they had to figure out how to avoid that: By making the coffee super hot, so hot that it is absolutely undrinkable. Customers eat their burgers and chips, then they wait five more minutes until the coffee is drinkable, and by the time they have consumed the coffee, so much time is gone that they don't ask for more.
The result is that customers suffer burns. Unfortunately for McDonald's, it turned out in the court case that McDonald's had already settled cases with 700 (SEVEN HUNDRED) customers who had suffered injuries. You say that coffee is hot. Yes, spilling hot coffee over yourself hurts. Spilling McDonald's coffee however, not on naked skin but through clothing which would cool it down, caused massive third degree burns.
So McDonald's was shown to intentionally serve coffee that is too hot to be consumed immediately, in order to save money. They knew from 700 settled cases that their practice was highly dangerous, and they still continued. That's why they got convicted.
By the way, the injured lady had sued for the cost of medical treatment, nothing more. The jury then added damages. And everything happened in a parked car, not while driving.
Now consider that many people take children, including babies, to McDonalds. Can you imagine what could happen if you combine super heated coffee, babies, and a clumsy customer? Customer puts four coffees on a tray, opens them to let them cool quicker, carries them to a table and stumbles over his/her own feet, and four coffees land in a pram?