Tesla settles lawsuit over Autopilot crash that killed Apple engineer

Tesla
has
settled
a
wrongful
death
lawsuit
brought
by
the
family
of
Walter
Huang,
an
Apple
engineer
and
father
of
two
who
died
after
his
Model
X
SUV,
with
Autopilot
features
switched
on,
crashed
into
a
highway
barrier
near
Mountain
View,
California,
in
2018.

The
settlement
comes
as
jury
selection
and
a
trial
were
just
beginning
on
Monday
in
a
California
Superior
court.
The
settlement
allows
Tesla
to
avoid
airing
evidence
and
testimonies
in
a
widely-followed
case.

The
National
Transportation
Safety
Board

investigated
the
fatal
crash
and
revealed,
in
2020,
that
it
found
Tesla’s
tech
was
at
least
partly
to
blame
for
the
collision,
along
with
possible
driver
distraction
and
problematic
road
construction.
NTSB
believed
that
Huang
had
been
looking
at
a
game
on
his
phone
at
some
point
before
the
collision.

The
federal
agency
found
that
Tesla’s
forward
collision
warning
system
did
not
provide
an
alert,
and
its
automatic
emergency
braking
system
did
not
activate
as
Huang’s
Model
X,
with
Autopilot
engaged,
accelerated
into
a
barrier
alongside
the
highway
101.
Faded
lane
markings
and
the
barrier
—
or
crash
attenuator
—
positioning
also
may
have
contributed
to
the
collision,
the

NTSB
said
in
2020.

Huang’s
bereaved
family
sued
Tesla
for
wrongful
death
and
their
claims
focused
in
part
on
alleged
safety
and
design
defects
in
the
company’s
driver
assistance
systems.
The
case
was
Sz
Huang
et
al
v.
Tesla
Inc.
et
al
in
a
California
Superior
Court
in
Santa
Clara
County.

Huang
attorneys,
in
court
filings,
also
pointed
to
social
media
and
marketing
messages
from
Tesla,
its
CEO
Elon
Musk
and
others,
suggesting
that
Autopilot
made
Tesla
vehicles
safe
to
drive
without
needing
to
stay
attentive
to
the
road
at
all
times
or
without
needing
to
keep
hands
on
the
vehicle’s
steering
wheel.

In
internal
Tesla
e-mails
referenced
in
court
filings,
Tesla
execs
and
engineers
discussed
how
they
had
become
complacent
while
driving
their
Tesla
vehicles
with
Autopilot
or
related
premium
features
switched
on.
They
described
reading
emails
and
checking
their
phones
while
driving
with
these
systems
engaged.

A
civil
jury
trial
was
slated
to
begin
this
week
in
a
San
Jose,
California
courthouse
just
before
Tesla
settled.

Tesla
attorneys
had
argued
that
Huang
was
an
inattentive
driver,
who
ostensibly
knew
better
but
was
playing
mobile
games
on
his
phone
at
the
time
of
the
crash.

The
company
has
filed
to
seal
from
public
view
the
amount
listed
in
the
settlement
agreement.

The
fatal
crash
and
filings
in
this
suit
had
already
thrown
Tesla’s
culture,
its
attitudes
about
safety
and
the
quality
of
its
driver
assistance
systems
into
question
for
many
prospective
shareholders
and
customers.

If
a
jury
had
found
Tesla
liable
(in
part
or
whole)
for
Huang’s
death,
this
trial
would
have
also
set
a
precedent
in
product
liability
suits
that
the
EV
maker
is
now
facing
pervasively,
making
it
easier
for
other
plaintiffs
to
sue
or
win
over
related
issues.

In

May
2022,
Musk
declared
in
a
post
on
social
media:
“We
will
never
seek
victory
in
a
just
case
against
us,
even
if
we
will
probably
win,”
adding
that,
“We
will
never
surrender/settle
an
unjust
case
against
us,
even
if
we
will
probably
lose.”

Tesla lead
attorneys
with
Bowman
and
Brooke
LLP
were
not
immediately
available
to
comment
on
Monday.

In
a
filing
asking
the
court
to
seal
the
settlement
terms,
Tesla’s
attorneys
wrote
that
the
company
had, “entered
into
a
settlement
agreement
with
Plaintiffs
to
end
years
of
litigation.”
They
said
they
wanted
the
exact
dollar
amount
of
the
settlement
sealed
because,
“other
potential
claimants
(or the
plaintiffs’
bar)
may
perceive
the
settlement
amount
as
evidence
of Tesla’s
potential
liability
for
losses,
which
may
have
a
chilling effect
on
settlement
opportunity
in
subsequent
cases.”

Attorneys
for
the
Huang
family,
at
the
law
firms
Minami
Tamaki
and
Walkup
Melodia,
did
not
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.