A trial will soon be held in the United States over the accident involving a Tesla car that resulted in death almost 6 years ago. The trial will take place in California on March 18 and will determine whether Tesla and its driver assistance software are to blame for the fatal accident.
In March 2018, Wei «Walter» Huang died after his Model X electric car equipped with the Autopilot system crashed into a protective barrier along Highway 101 in Mountain View, California. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board later found that Autopilot and distracted driving contributed to the accident, as phone data indicated that Huang was playing a mobile game.
However, in 2019, Huang’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla, claiming that the car did not have adequate safety features at the time, including automatic braking.
Tesla has previously faced lawsuits over its driver assistance features. But it has never been found guilty. Last year, the automaker won two lawsuits accusing Autopilot of involvement in two accidents: fatal accident «without people behind the wheel» and another fatal accident in 2019, in which a Model 3 driver died.
However, in recent months, U.S. federal regulators have stepped up their scrutiny of Tesla, as the Department of Justice expanded its criminal investigation into Autopilot in October. Tesla also announced a recall of 2 million Tesla cars and released an update that was supposed to make it harder for drivers to misuse Autopilot. But experts found that the fixes were mostly inadequate.
Source: The Verge