Tesla Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Highly Controversial Autopilot Crash Case

Tesla has reached a settlement with the family of an engineer who died in a fatal crash involving one of their Model X vehicles six years ago. The settlement came just before the start of a jury trial for a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla, accusing the company of failing to deliver on safety promises and driver-assist technology.

According to court documents, Tesla and the family of the deceased engineer, Wei Lun Huang, reached an agreement, the details of which were kept confidential. The lawsuit, filed in 2019, alleged that Tesla’s Autopilot system, which was active at the time of the crash, failed to detect lane markings and a concrete separator, leading to the fatal accident.

Huang was using the Autopilot function on a California highway in 2018 when the crash occurred, resulting in his death. Despite Tesla’s claims that the Autopilot system adjusts speed to traffic and keeps the vehicle in its lane, the family argued that the company was negligent in the design and marketing of the Model X.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that Huang was not holding the wheel at the time of