A Lawsuit Against Tesla Over A Deadly Self-Driving Car Accident Has Been Settled

The driver had relied on his car’s driver assistance system, but in 2019, he collided with a truck crossing a highway. “Inattention due to overreliance on automation” was the reason the American driver couldn’t react to the truck, according to an investigation by the US National Road Safety and Security Authority (NTSB). However, the watchdog criticized Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system, which failed to provide “a visual or audible warning to the driver to return their hands to the steering wheel.”

The lawsuit was one of the first to address flaws in Tesla’s autonomous driving software. Last year, the electric carmaker settled with the family of a man who was killed while operating his Tesla Model X on Autopilot.

A hearing was held Thursday in Miami District Court in which Tesla had to defend itself in another fatal accident in 2019. A Tesla Model S crashed into a parked SUV while ignoring a stop sign. A woman standing next to the SUV was killed, and her boyfriend was seriously injured.

In that case, it must be determined who was responsible for the accident: the driver or the Autopilot system. The driver reached down to pick up a dropped phone just before the accident, but it remains unclear whether he saw or heard the car’s warnings.

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