For years, Tesla has been facing accusations that their cars have caused a large number of accidents, sometimes with fatal outcomes. One of the lawsuits filed over the 2018 crash that killed Apple engineer Walter Huang has been closed by settlement with Huang’s family.

Huang was killed when his Tesla Model X, on Autopilot, crashed into a highway guardrail. His family filed suit, and a trial was set to begin in California this week. However, this will not happen due to the settlement, but if it did, Autopilot and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology would again come under fire and scrutiny.

For years, Tesla claimed that the driver was to blame for the accident, because he was playing a video game before the accident happened. Similarly, in other lawsuits, they have tried to dispute the guilt of their autonomous driving system by shifting the blame to the drivers, claiming that the drivers did not follow instructions to maintain attention when using the system.

The settlement comes at a time when the company is experiencing poor sales results. Since the beginning of 2024, the number of orders and deliveries has dropped, while at the same time the company is fighting with growing competition, primarily from Chinese manufacturers.

Source: The Guardian