The settlement of a long-standing lawsuit involving the 2018 death of a former Apple Inc. AAPL engineer in a Tesla Inc TSLA crash has drawn attention, particularly due to comments made by Gary Black, Managing Partner at The Future Fund LLC.
What Happened: Black’s commentary, posted on X alongside a screenshot of a Washington Post article outlining the settlement, highlighted the unexpected turn of events in light of Tesla’s perceived advantage in the case.
“Surprising since the case facts seemed to favor $TSLA. But as I said this morning, there's always uncertainty with a California jury,” Black stated.
The lawsuit revolved around a fatal accident in March 2018, where a Tesla vehicle on Autopilot collided with a highway barrier near Mountain View, California, leading to the death of Walter Huang, a former Apple engineer. The National Transportation Safety Board pointed to Tesla’s failure to limit the use of Autopilot in such conditions as a contributing factor.
Tesla, which has been contesting the lawsuit since Huang's family filed it in April 2019, has consistently maintained that it was not liable, asserting that drivers ultimately control the vehicle while in Autopilot.
The settlement details were not disclosed. This case is one of several set for trial this year in which Tesla's Autopilot technology is alleged to have contributed to a fatal crash.
Why It Matters: This lawsuit has been a point of contention for Tesla, which has faced criticism over its Autopilot technology. In February, Tesla was under scrutiny when a recruiter from the company, Hans von Ohain, died in a fatal accident, which was potentially the first full self-driving fatality from the electric vehicle (EV) company.
Later that month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disputed a media report suggesting that the 2022 death of a company employee may have been the first fatality involving the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.
In April, Tesla sought testimony from Apple in the court case concerning the fatal 2018 crash involving its Autopilot system. Despite these incidents, Tesla’s safety record was defended by Elon Musk’s mother, who shared videos of a driver who escaped a crane crash, calling Teslas the safest cars.
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