SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Tesla has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a Silicon Valley engineer who died in a crash while relying on the company’s semi-autonomous driving software.
The size of the settlement was not disclosed in court documents filed Monday, just a day before the trial stemming from the 2018 crash on a San Francisco Bay Area highway was scheduled to begin.
The family of Walter Huang filed a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit in 2019 seeking to hold Tesla - and, by extension, its CEO Elon Musk - liable for repeatedly exaggerating the capabilities of Tesla’s self-driving car technology. They claimed the technology, dubbed Autopilot, was promoted in egregious ways that caused vehicle owners to believe they didn’t have to remain vigilant while they were behind the wheel.
Evidence indicated that Huang was playing a video game on his iPhone when he crashed into a highway barrier.
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