Tesla has settled a lawsuit over a 2018 car crash that left an Apple engineer off a freeway near San Francisco and killed an Apple engineer, court documents said Monday.
The settlement allows Tesla to avoid a lengthy jury trial over what role Autopilot, its driver-assistance technology, played in the accident.
The case involves a highway accident in which Walter Huang was killed. Tesla had claimed that Mr. Hwang had abused the system by playing a video game just before the accident.
Huang’s family claimed Autopilot caused his 2017 Model X to crash into a highway barrier. Lawyers for Huang’s family are questioning whether Tesla understands that drivers will not or likely will not be able to use the system as instructed, and what steps the automaker is taking to protect drivers. He also questioned whether he had taken the .
The accident that killed Huang was one of hundreds in the U.S. reported to auto safety regulators in which Autopilot was suspected as a factor.
Autopilot systems can steer, accelerate, and brake automatically on public roads, but they cannot completely replace a human driver, especially in city driving. Tesla’s documentation describing the system warns that it does not make the car self-driving and requires a “fully alert driver” who “can take over driving at any time.”
