Tesla reaches settlement with the family of an Apple engineer who said Autopilot caused his fatal crash

New York
CNN
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Tesla has settled a high-profile case that was set to put the electric car company and its controversial automated driving system on trial starting Monday.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a former Apple engineer who died after crashing his Tesla Model The trial could have lasted several weeks, but the parties reached a settlement on Monday.

Walter Huang was killed when he was killed Tesla hit a concrete highway In Silicon Valley on March 23, 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board, in its investigation, found that Autopilot was engaged for about 19 minutes before the fatal crash, when the car, traveling at 71 mph, veered off the highway.

Settlement It marks another defining moment for A company under siege Which lost its popularity and a third of its market value this year. CEO Elon Musk and the company say their Autopilot and full self-driving technologies outperform the competition and that's a big reason why Tesla is becoming the world's largest electric car maker – Before its Chinese competitor BYD. But the Huang family said Tesla had oversold the capabilities of its Autopilot technology and that its use was not as safe as advertised.

Representatives for Huang's family and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tesla has come under intense scrutiny for its Autopilot technology over the six years since Huang's fatal crash. after The investigation lasted for two years After analyzing 1,000 Tesla crashes while vehicles with Autopilot were operating, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Autopilot system could give drivers a false sense of security. It can easily be abused in some dangerous situations when Autopilot is unable to safely navigate the road, NHTSA found in December 2023.

NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are also investigating crashes involving Tesla vehicles using various driver assistance features, including a series of… Collision with emergency vehicles At the scene of other accidents.

Immediately after the NHTSA's December report, Tesla recalled all 2 million of its vehicles in the United States, giving drivers more warnings when Autopilot is engaged and they're not paying attention to the road or keeping their hands on the wheel.

However, the company maintains that the technology is safe to use when used correctly and reduces deaths. Autopilot requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel, and Tesla says people using Autopilot technology should keep their eyes on the road.

Tesla said this did not happen in the case of Huang's crash. On March 30, 2018, Blog postTesla said Huang's hands were not detected on his car's steering wheel for six seconds before the crash. The company said it believed Huang was responsible for the accident because investigators discovered he was He plays a video game on his phone While the autopilot was busy. Huang did not apply the brakes or attempt to steer his car away from the concrete barrier before crashing.

Although Huang's family admits he was distracted while driving the car, they say Tesla is at fault because it falsely marketed Autopilot as self-driving software. They claimed that Tesla knew that Autopilot was not ready to operate during peak times, and had defects that could make it unsafe to use.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on these allegations.

“Huang has lost her husband, and two children have lost their father because Tesla is testing the beta version of its Autopilot software on live drivers,” said Ms. B. Mark Fong, the attorney who filed the lawsuit filed in California state court in the May 2019 complaint.

Had the jury ruled in favor of Huang's family, Tesla could have been forced to pay damages, and those damages could have added up quickly. Wrongful death lawsuits involving major corporations have sometimes resulted in damages amounting to $1 billion.

The promise of Autopilot has also helped boost Tesla shares in recent years to make it the world's most valuable automaker — even as its shares are among the worst performers in 2024. Self-driving “the ability to make Tesla… The most valuable company in the world ever.

Tesla stock (TSLA) rose 5% on Monday.