Tesla settles lawsuit over fatal autopilot crash, shares down 30% YTD
Tesla has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a Silicon Valley engineer, reportedly employed in Apple, who died in a crash five years ago, while relying on the electric vehicle major’s semi-autonomous driving software. Shares of Tesla Inc., are down 30 per cent year to date (YTD) and slipped one per cent before the market opened on Tuesday, April 9.
The amount Tesla paid to settle the case was not disclosed in court documents filed on April 8, Monday, one day before the trial stemming from the 2018 crash on a San Francisco Bay Area highway was scheduled to begin, according to a report by Associated Press. In a court filing requesting to keep the sum private, Tesla said it agreed to settle the case in order to ‘end years of litigation.’
How Tesla got involved in the autopilot crash
The crash victim Walter Huang, was an Apple engineer and died after his Model X, operating on autopilot, collided with a highway barrier. Huang’s family filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit in 2019 seeking to hold Tesla — and, by extension, its chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk — liable for repeatedly exaggerating the capabilities of Tesla’s self-driving car technology.
Huang’s family claimed the technology, dubbed Autopilot, was promoted in egregious ways that caused vehicle owners to believe that they did not have to remain vigilant while they were behind the wheel. According to the AP report, evidence has indicated that Huang was playing a video game on his iPhone when he crashed into a concrete highway barrier on March 23, 2018.
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Published: 09 Apr 2024, 07:22 PM IST
