Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

Tesla settled its Autopilot crash lawsuit. That’s bad news for understanding the tech

A yearslong case around Tesla’s driver-assistance software was, for now at least, put to bed: Tesla settled a lawsuit this week that said the automakers’ autopilot features were responsible for the March 2018 death of Wei “Walter” Huang. Tesla also filed a document with the California court requesting that it seal the terms of a settlement the company appears to have agreed upon with Huang’s family.

All of which means that, while the Huang family will be compensated for their loss, we won’t learn in more detail, through discovery, or anything else what actually went on—with the case.

The cause of Huang’s death was disputed: the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), following an extensive investigation, found that both Autopilot and distracted driving were factors in the crash. Tesla argued that Huang’s death was because he was distracted playing a game; Huang’s family believed otherwise, suing Tesla for wrongful death. (Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The case, and its last-minute settlement, seems to suggest that there’s a growing recognition that so-called banana launches, wherein the product “ripens” or improves with customer use, should not be used in safety systems for self-driving vehicles, says Matthias Schmidt, an independent automotive analyst in Berlin. “It sets a precedent,” he says, that with safety systems “where the product doesn’t work correctly, and if it goes wrong, it can result in death.”

In all, 500 people have died while behind the wheel of a Tesla or because of an accident involving a Tesla, according to TeslaDeaths.com, a website that tracks incidents with the electric vehicle manufacturer’s products. Of those 500, 42 are linked to Autopilot, an advanced driver-assistance system the company promotes. Huang’s death occurred nearly 19 minutes after he’d engaged the Autopilot tool; his Model X hit the concrete median at 71 miles per hour.

hat approach more broadly across technology is what Madeleine Elish coined the “moral crumple zone” in 2019: that technology isn’t at fault so much as the humans who get in the way. “It’s so easy to blame the human fleshy part of the system rather than hold to account the people making new stuff,” says Jack Stilgoe, an associate professor at University College London who studies autonomous vehicles.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91089652/tesla-settlement-lawsuit-transparency