May 1, 2019—Errors by Tesla's autopilot navigation system caused the crash that killed Walter Huang of Foster City, Calif., last year, claims a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Huang's widow and family on April 26.
Huang, 38, died on March 23, 2018, from injuries he suffered when the autopilot system of his 2017 Tesla Model X drove his car into the unprotected edge of a concrete highway median.
The lawsuit alleges Tesla's autopilot feature was defective and caused Huang's death. The navigation system of Huang's Tesla misread the lane lines on the roadway, failed to detect the concrete median, and failed to brake the car, but instead accelerated the car into the median.
The allegations against Tesla include product liability, defective product design, failure to warn, breach of warranty, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, and false advertising. The lawsuit also names the State of California Department of Transportation as a defendant. Huang's vehicle impacted a concrete highway median that was missing its crash attenuator guard, as Caltrans failed to replace the guard after an earlier crash there.
