Tesla Settles Apple Engineer Autopilot Fatality Case
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Tesla has settled an outstanding Autopilot fatality lawsuit before the case could end up before a jury, but on the condition that the settlement amount never sees the light of day.
Lawyers for Tesla asked [PDF] Judge Lori Pegg of the California Superior Court for the County of Santa Clara to seal specifics of the settlement with the family of late Apple engineer and Tesla owner Walter Huang, who died in 2018 when his Model X accelerated into a barrier while under the control of Autopilot.
According to Tesla lawyer Thomas Branigan, the settlement amount could be perceived "as evidence of Tesla's potential liability for losses, which may have a chilling effect on settlement opportunity in subsequent cases." Branigan said Tesla would suffer serious injury if the settlement amount was not withheld, and his motion appears to have been granted based on court documents.
There's plenty of unknowns in a situation like this, in which Tesla chose to settle the matter a mere day before jury selection was set to begin. Nonetheless, it's the first settlement in an Autopilot-related case for Tesla, which so far has prevailed in court on both cases that went before a jury.
[...] Musk's lawyers tried to avoid his being deposed in the Huang case by arguing that any of his past statements about Autopilot could have been deepfaked videos, and thus couldn't be trusted or treated as evidence of liability.
Why the automaker ultimately chose to settle this matter isn't clear, though a protracted court battle would mean more bad publicity at a time when Tesla and Musk's reputations are foundering.
[...] "We will never seek victory in a just case against us, even if we will probably win," Musk said on Twitter in 2022. Conversely, "we will never surrender/settle an unjust case against us, even if we will probably lose."
We asked Tesla what it had to say about the settlement in light of Musk's previous statements, but haven't heard back.
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