Tesla settles with Apple engineer’s family who said Autopilot caused his fatal crash

[fholbert]

New YorkCNN —
Tesla has settled a high-profile case that was set to put the electric car company and its controversial automated-driving system on trial starting Monday.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Jury selection was set to begin Monday in a wrongful death suit filed by the family of a former Apple engineer who died after his Tesla Model X crashed while the Autopilot feature was engaged. The trial could have lasted several weeks, but the parties settled Monday.

Walter Huang was killed when his Tesla struck a concrete highway median in Silicon Valley on March 23, 2018. The National Transportation Safety Board, in its investigation, found that Autopilot was engaged for nearly 19 minutes before the fatal crash, when the car, traveling at 71 mph, veered off the highway.

Story here: https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/08/tech/tesla-trial-wrongful-death-walter-huang/index.html

 

[FOOLSLFDRVNG]

A few million settled would be a lot less than a couple million in attorney fees and bad publicity with damaging heading from CNN that ties 6 year old autopilot probably HW1 with FSDs recent release.

 

[ev919]

when the car, traveling at 71 mph, veered off the highway.

Even in current "supervised" (disclaimer) FSD shape and form, how the hell are you supposed to override (in time, in a split second) the car going ~71 mph that decides to "suddenly" do just that, so that driver can avoid car hitting the median on interstate?

This sort of "risk" scares the *sugar* out of me, at least in highway speed with FSD with obstructs such as highway median.

 

[Daytonaviolet]

I remember reading this 6yrs ago I also know the exact location where it happened. When i use AP around these types of bends where there’s a split, i grasp the wheel with both hands incase the car tries to veer last second. RIP

 

[ev919]

Yep, RIP.

IMHO, AP and FSD are more of novelty created for content creators to generate "clicks".

 

[fholbert]

IMHO, AP and FSD are more of novelty created for content creators to generate "clicks".

I agree with you. It's kind of a toy.

FSD isn't what people think it should be.

 

[Tam]

Before this, Tesla had been winning every Autopilot lawsuit: Jurors blamed drivers' inattentiveness and not Tesla.

In this case, the driver was playing games on the phone.

That's another winning factor for Jurors to blame drivers' inattentiveness and not Tesla.

It's puzzling why Tesla settled after the winning streak so far.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Before this, Tesla had been winning every Autopilot lawsuit: Jurors blamed drivers' inattentiveness and not Tesla.

In this case, the driver was playing games on the phone.

That's another winning factor for Jurors to blame drivers' inattentiveness and not Tesla.

It's puzzling why Tesla settled after the winning streak so far.

Mayne somebody thought that it's a bad time for bad PR.

 

[fholbert]

It's puzzling why Tesla settled after the winning streak so far.

Opposition had a better law firm?

I did some work for an California attorney who took cases like this. Settlements exceeding a billion were common.

 

[cwerdna]

Model X Crash on US-101 (Mountain View, CA) was the original thread on this. I recall the gore point at the split on 101 south for 85 vs. 101 and the attenuator (Model X Crash on US-101 (Mountain View, CA)).

Way before I had any EV and years before Leaf was even shipping, I used to work near there.

 

[Tam]

Opposition had a better law firm?

Yes, That does make sense.

This time, the lawyer wants the jurors to know how Tesla's Driving Assistance works:

"Phatak’s testimony marks the first time Tesla has publicly explained these design decisions, peeling back the curtain on a system shrouded in secrecy by the company and its controversial CEO, Elon Musk. Musk..."

Many think that Tesla's system is so advanced. It's a marvel with all the talk about AI, Dojo, and Neuro Net... but Tesla engineer Akshay Phatak explained:

"If there are clearly marked lane lines, the system will follow the lane lines,” Phatak said under questioning in July 2023. Tesla’s groundbreaking system, he said, was simply “designed” to follow painted lane lines."

It's too simplistic, so maybe Tesla doesn't want to expose its simplistic design to the public by settling the case.

 

[fholbert]

Yes, That does make sense.

This time, the lawyer wants the jurors to know how Tesla's Driving Assistance works:

"Phatak’s testimony marks the first time Tesla has publicly explained these design decisions, peeling back the curtain on a system shrouded in secrecy by the company and its controversial CEO, Elon Musk. Musk..."

Many think that Tesla's system is so advanced. It's a marvel with all the talk about AI, Dojo, and Neuro Net... but Tesla engineer Akshay Phatak explained:

"If there are clearly marked lane lines, the system will follow the lane lines,” Phatak said under questioning in July 2023. Tesla’s groundbreaking system, he said, was simply “designed” to follow painted lane lines."

It's too simplistic, so maybe Tesla doesn't want to expose its simplistic design to the public by settling the case.

Then again, maybe they found out the jury was going to have a lot of Tesla owners.

 

[FOOLSLFDRVNG]

Opposition had a better law firm?

I did some work for a California attorney who took cases like this. Settlements exceeding a billion were common.

Opposition probably pro bono knowing Tesla has unlimited deep pockets. You never sue someone poorer than you says a wiseman or a crook attorney.

 

[jay1122]

Nothing beats the cash as always. Tesla probably want to keep a low profile. Especially with FSD on wide open free trial recently. I wonder how much is the settlement amount.

 

[Tam]

Then again, maybe they found out the jury was going to have a lot of Tesla owners.

That sounds like a plus for Tesla if Tesla owners/fans could infiltrate the jury (family's lawyers might weed them out during the jury selection to nullify Tesla's advantage).

 

[mgs333]

I remember the following when the news first broke:

1) he was playing a game on his phone at the time of the crash (already stated above by others)
2) he had told his wife prior to the crash that the car kept wanting to go towards the divider

"Huang had previously complained that the car had veered near the same median before, according to family members."

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/trial-pose-critical-test-tesla-s-autopilot-19384577.php

So he knew that was a dangerous section but still chose to play games. We never know all the facts but I'd say the family got very fortunate to get any payoff from Tesla. I hope this doesn't encourage other similar lawsuits.

 

[FOOLSLFDRVNG]

I remember the following when the news first broke:

1) he was playing a game on his phone at the time of the crash (already stated above by others)
2) he had told his wife prior to the crash that the car kept wanting to go towards the divider

"Huang had previously complained that the car had veered near the same median before, according to family members."

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/trial-pose-critical-test-tesla-s-autopilot-19384577.php

So he knew that was a dangerous section but still chose to play games. We never know all the facts but I'd say the family got very fortunate to get any payoff from Tesla. I hope this doesn't encourage other similar lawsuits.

Tesla probably would have won the case in trial but settled to donate to the martyrdom of FAFO. It was either millions to attorneys or to the family closure and Elon’s mouth.

 

[fholbert]

I remember the following when the news first broke:

1) he was playing a game on his phone at the time of the crash (already stated above by others)
2) he had told his wife prior to the crash that the car kept wanting to go towards the divider

"Huang had previously complained that the car had veered near the same median before, according to family members."

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/trial-pose-critical-test-tesla-s-autopilot-19384577.php

So he knew that was a dangerous section but still chose to play games. We never know all the facts but I'd say the family got very fortunate to get any payoff from Tesla. I hope this doesn't encourage other similar lawsuits.

As far as playing a game at the time of the crash, that’s the defense story. Since it never went to trial a lot of things can be said that were never proven.

Not saying the statement is incorrect. We’ll never know. There is a reason Tesla gave up so easily.

 

[Tam]

As far as playing a game at the time of the crash, that’s the defense story. Since it never went to trial a lot of things can be said that were never proven.

Not saying the statement is incorrect. We’ll never know. There is a reason Tesla gave up so easily.

NTSB:

"Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the Mountain View, California, crash was the Tesla Autopilot system steering the sport utility vehicle into a highway gore area due to system limitations, and the driver’s lack of response due to distraction likely from a cell phone game application and overreliance on the Autopilot partial driving automation system.

Contributing to the crash was the Tesla vehicle’s ineffective monitoring of driver engagement, which facilitated the driver’s complacency and inattentiveness.

Contributing to the severity of the driver’s injuries was the vehicle’s impact with a crash attenuator barrier that was damaged and nonoperational at the time of the collision due to the California Highway Patrol’s failure to report the damage following a previous crash, and systemic problems with the California Department of Transportation’s maintenance division in repairing traffic safety hardware in a timely manner."