Tesla has reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding a 2019 accident in which the driver of a Tesla Model 3 died, according to a court document. The driver relied on the driving assistance system but collided with a truck crossing a highway.
According to an investigation by the American regulator NTSB, “Inattentiveness due to too much trust in automation” caused the American to be unable to react to the truck. The watchdog was also critical of Tesla’s Autopilot driving assistance system, which had not reminded the driver to put his hands back on the steering wheel.
This lawsuit was one of the first to address the flaws in Tesla’s autonomous driving software. Last year, the electric car manufacturer already settled with relatives of a man who died while driving his Tesla Model X with Autopilot.
A hearing also took place in the Miami court on Thursday in which Tesla, owned by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, had to defend itself for a fatal accident. A Tesla Model S collided with a parked SUV after a stop sign was ignored. A woman standing next to the SUV was killed and her friend was seriously injured.
In that case, it must become clear who was responsible for the accident: the driver or the Autopilot system. The driver reached for the ground to pick up a dropped phone just before the accident, but it remains unclear whether he saw or heard the warnings from his car.