Tesla Settles Lawsuit Over Apple Engineer’s Fatal Autopilot Crash
Walter Huang died in 2018 when his Tesla Model X smashed into a highway barrier at over 70 mph.
Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
Tesla has settled a high-profile lawsuit brought by the family of an Apple engineer who was killed in a crash while using the automaker’s semi-autonomous driving system.
It’s unclear how much Tesla paid to settle the case Monday. The resolution came the day before the trial was set to begin, with Tesla saying in a court filing that it agreed to settle in order to “end years of litigation.”
The case alleging negligence and wrongful death was filed the year after Walter Huang’s fatal crash in California in March 2018. Huang’s family sought to hold Tesla liable for allegedly exaggerating the abilities of its Autopilot driving technology and then marketing the software in such a way that drivers were misled about how much control they needed to retain of their vehicle when using the system.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that Huang was likely distracted by playing a video game on his smartphone when his Model X crashed into a concrete highway barrier at over 70 mph.
Several other cases have alleged that Tesla’s Autopilot technology—which Tesla says is safe when drivers use it correctly—has played a role in a deadly crash. In 2022, CEO Elon Musk publicly vowed the company would “never surrender/settle an unjust case against us, even if we will probably lose.”
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