Tesla has settled a lawsuit with the surviving family members of an Apple engineer who died in a crash in 2018, according to a report from CNN. The engineer’s family blamed Tesla’s Autopilot technology for the deadly crash, a charge Tesla denied.
Terms of the settlement have not been made public, according to multiple reports, and jury selection in the civil trial was supposed to start on Monday. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions.
Walter Huang, 38, died in a crash in Mountain View, California on March 23, 2018, when his 2017 Tesla Model X struck a highway barrier at 71 miles per hour. Huang was pulled from the car before it caught fire, as you can see in the photo above, but he later died at the hospital.
Tesla’s Autopilot was engaged during the crash, which is why Huang’s family blamed the technology, accusing the carmaker of not being clear enough about its capabilities. Tesla maintained Huang was playing a game on his phone during the crash, though documents submitted to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board by Huang’s family contend he had previously complained about Autopilot.
Despite its name, Autopilot is more akin to cruise control with extra features that allow it limited abilities to steer, accelerate, and decelerate. But it’s not to be confused with Tesla’s other technology, known as Full Self-Driving, which is more advanced and is also supposed to only be used by a driver who’s paying full attention to the road.
According to CNBC, Tesla’s attorneys have asked that terms of the settlement not be publicly disclosed 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.”
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