Tesla settles lawsuit over fatal crash involving autopilot

NTSB had found fault with driver and vehicle

Tesla has settled a wrongful death lawsuit involving a crash that killed an Apple engineer in Mountain View California after the SUV he drove veered off a highway near San Francisco nearly four years ago resulting in a fiery ending, court documents show.

The family of the later Wei Lun “Walter” Huang sued the electric car manufacturing company after the Model X he drove crashed into a concrete lane divider and careened into oncoming lanes, obliterating the SUV and igniting a fire. Huang was 38.

In an investigative report released after the March 23, 2018, crash, the National Transportation Safety Board found fault on both the vehicle and the driver during the wreck on U.S. Highway 101 near Mountain View, a city in Santa Clara County, part of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The trial had been slated to start Monday before Judge Lori E. Pegg, California Superior Court records show.

Details of the settlement were redacted in court papers obtained by USA TODAY.

NTSB’s findings of March 23, 2018, crash

According to a 2020 report obtained by USA TODAY, officials found Huang did not try to stop the SUV as it sped toward a crash barrier along the highway.

The board determined:

⬤ Tesla’s system “did not detect the driver’s hands on the steering wheel” for 26 of the final 60 seconds leading up to the collision, including the final six seconds.

⬤ Huang was likely distracted before the wreck.

⬤ The SUV’s autopilot failed to keep the vehicle in its lane and its collision avoidance software had failed to detect a highway barrier.

In addition to monetary compensation, the lawsuit sought damages from the California Department of Transportation, claiming the barrier the SUV hit had been previously damaged. According to the initial 20-page suit, the barrier also failed to absorb the SUV’s impact.

USA TODAY has reached out to Tesla and attorneys for Sz Huang, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of her late husband and their four children.

Tesla: ‘Keep hands on wheel at all times’

After the crash, Tesla wrote in a blog post, “the reason this crash was so severe is because the crash attenuator, a highway safety barrier which is designed to reduce the impact into a concrete lane divider, had been crushed in a prior accident without being replaced. We have never seen this level of damage to a Model X in any other crash.”

According to Tesla, as a safety precaution, users of its partial autopilot system are always to keep their hands on the wheel while driving.

The system steers, brakes and accelerates in highway lanes and is designed to deliver audible and visual alerts when the driver does not comply.