The settlement avoids a jury trial months before Tesla plans to launch its self-driving taxis.
Electric car maker Tesla has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of an Apple engineer who was killed when his Model X veered off a California highway while on autopilot.
Tesla has settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of Huang Wei Lun over a 2018 crash in Mountain View, California, according to court documents filed Monday.
The settlement means Tesla avoids a jury trial that would have focused scrutiny on self-driving technology, months ahead of its self-driving robotaxi launch scheduled for August. .
The amount Tesla paid to settle the lawsuit was not disclosed in court documents because the company asked that it remain sealed.
Huang's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2019, accusing Tesla of liability, citing exaggerated claims about Tesla's self-driving technology.
They argued that Tesla's Autopilot feature was promoted in a way that led customers to believe they didn't need to pay attention while driving.
Tesla's materials warn that self-driving requires a “fully alert driver” who can “take over the wheel at any time.”
Tesla's lawyers had argued that Huang was not using the Autopilot system properly because he was playing a video game shortly before the accident.
A 2018 investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found both Tesla and Huang at fault for the accident.
Tesla is facing at least one other lawsuit over a fatal 2019 crash involving its self-driving technology.
Tesla convinced a jury in November that its self-driving technology was not the cause of a fatal 2019 driver crash in Southern California.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post in 2022 that the company had no intention of settling “unjust lawsuits against us, even if we lose.” Stated.