38-year-old involved in accident

Tesla wants to avert lawsuit over Autopilot fatality

Fatal accident involving a Tesla Model X in California in March 2018

(Bild: AP)

The US electric car manufacturer Tesla has ended a court case concerning a fatal accident while using the autopilot function with a settlement. This is according to court documents from Monday, one day before an eagerly awaited trial. The 38-year-old Apple engineer Walter Huang died in the accident near San Francisco in 2018. He had switched on the driver assistance system of his Model X when the car crashed into a freeway barrier.

His case is one of almost 1,000 accidents involving the use of Tesla Autopilot that are being investigated by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Twenty-three people have died in such accidents.

The details of the settlement are not known. Tesla had won two previous lawsuits arguing that drivers had failed to follow the carmaker's instructions to stay alert while using the system. In Huang's case, Tesla explained that he had been playing a video game on his smartphone shortly before the accident.

According to Tesla, Autopilot can adapt its speed to the traffic on the highway and navigate independently. The extended Autopilot offers automatic lane changes, navigation on highway ramps and autonomous parking. The "Full Self-Driving" version includes functions for city traffic such as recognizing traffic lights. Tesla's documentation on the systems explains that this does not make the car autonomous and requires a "fully attentive driver" who "can take control at any time".

Tesla deviates from its previous line
The fact that Tesla has now reached a settlement contradicts Tesla CEO Elon Musk's previous line of not backing down in any "unjust" case, "even if we are likely to lose".

According to Sam Abuelsamid, analyst at the consulting firm Guidehouse Insights, the company wants to prevent a public study on problems with autonomous driving. After all, Musk announced last week that Tesla would be unveiling a robotaxi on August 8. He was responding to a Reuters report that development of the affordable entry-level Model 2 had been discontinued in order to focus on the self-driving car.

Tesla is also currently struggling with declining sales. In addition to a reluctance to buy due to the economic situation, the polarizing appearance of company boss Musk is also playing a role, according to investigations.