Tesla settles case over fatal Autopilot crash of Apple engineer

Tesla has settled a lawsuit over a 2018 car crash that killed an Apple engineer after his Model X, operating on Autopilot, swerved off a highway near San Francisco, court documents showed on Monday.

Tesla has settled a lawsuit over a 2018 car crash that killed an Apple engineer after his Model X, operating on Autopilot, swerved off a highway near San Francisco, court documents showed on Monday.

The settlement was made on the eve of the trial over the high-profile accident involving Tesla's driver-assistant technology. Tesla faces a series of lawsuits over crashes related to the alleged use of Autopilot, putting the automaker at risk of large monetary judgments and reputational damage.

The settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed, came as chief executive Elon Musk is making major promotions of self-driving technology, which he has touted as key to the financial future of the world's most valuable automaker.

The 2018 accident killed 38-year-old Walter Huang. His family had alleged that Autopilot steered his 2017 Model X into a highway barrier. Plaintiffs' lawyers asked a Tesla witness whether the company knew drivers would not watch the road when using its driver-assistance system, Reuters reported last month citing deposition transcripts.

Tesla had contended that Huang misused the Autopilot system because he was playing a video game just before the accident.

Huang's lawyer and Tesla were not available for comment.

The crash that killed Huang is among hundreds of U.S. accidents in which Autopilot was a suspected factor in reports to auto safety regulators.