Tesla on Monday settled a lawsuit that blamed the automaker’s driver-assistance software for the 2018 death of a California man, avoiding a trial that would have focused on the company’s technology months before it planned to self-driving taxi unveiled.
The trial stemming from the death of Wei Lun Huang, an Apple software engineer whom Walter went to work with, is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection. The case is one of the most high-profile involving Tesla’s Autopilot software, attracting significant public attention and prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The terms of the settlement with Mr. Huang’s children and other members of his family were not disclosed, and Tesla filed court documents seeking to prevent them from being made public.
Testimony in the trial will put Tesla’s autonomous driving software under close scrutiny, further fueling the debate over whether the technology makes cars safer or exposes drivers and others to serious harm. or death.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, has said the company’s self-driving software will generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. Investors used his claims to justify the company’s lofty stock market valuation. Tesla is worth more than any other carmaker even though its shares have tumbled in recent months.
said Mr. Musk said at X last week that Tesla will introduce a self-driving taxi, Robotaxi, in August. If Tesla has indeed perfected a vehicle that can transport passengers without a driver — which many analysts doubt — the development will help answer criticism that the company has been slow to follow up on its Model 3 sedan. and Model Y sport utility vehicle with new products.
Mr. Huang died after his Tesla Model X, a luxury SUV, veered off a highway in Mountain View, Calif., and crashed into a concrete median barrier. In the lawsuit, Mr. Huang’s family blamed defects in Autopilot, which it said lacked the technology to prevent the crash. The lawsuit also seeks damages from California, arguing that the barrier was damaged and failed to absorb the impact of the vehicle as it should have.
Lawyers for Mr. Huang and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment late Monday. In legal filings, Tesla said it had settled “to end years of litigation.” The company indicated in court documents that it plans to offer testimony that Mr. Huang was playing a video game on his phone when the crash occurred. The family’s lawyers denied that was the case.
While Tesla calls this software Autopilot and a more advanced version Full Self-Driving, neither system makes a car fully autonomous. The systems can accelerate, brake, keep cars in their lanes and perform other functions to varying degrees, but drivers are required to stay focused and be ready to intervene at any time.
In December, Tesla recalled more than two million vehicles for a software update under pressure from US regulators who said the automaker did not do enough to ensure drivers remained attentive when using the systems.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the 2018 crash blamed Tesla and Mr. Huang. The agency said Autopilot failed to keep the car in its lane and its collision avoidance software failed to detect an obstacle on the highway. The board also said that Mr. Huang was probably distracted.
