Tesla settles with Apple engineer’s family who said Autopilot caused his fatal crash
CNN
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.
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 set to begin Monday in a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a former Apple engineer who died after his Tesla Model X crashed while the Autopilot feature was engaged. The trial could have lasted several weeks, but the parties settled Monday. Walter Huang was killed when his Tesla struck a concrete highway median in Silicon Valley on March 23, 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board, in its investigation, found that Autopilot was engaged for nearly 19 minutes before the fatal crash, when the car, traveling at 71 mph, veered off the highway. The settlement marks another crucial moment for an embattled company that has lost popularity and a third of its market value this year. CEO Elon Musk and the company say that its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies are ahead of the competition and a big reason why Tesla has become the world’s largest electric vehicle maker — just ahead of Chinese rival BYD. But Huang’s family said Tesla oversold its Autopilot technology’s capabilities, and that it is not as safe to use 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 a two-year investigation that analyzed 1,000 Tesla crashes while vehicles had Autopilot engaged, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Autopilot system can give drivers a false sense of security. It can be easily misused in certain dangerous situations when Autopilot may be unable to safely navigate the road, NHTSA found in December 2023.
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