Tesla settles lawsuit over Autopilot crash that killed Apple engineer
A Tesla Model X burns after crashing on U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, California, U.S. on March 23, 2018.

Tesla has settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Walter Huang, an Apple engineer and father of two who died after his Model X SUV, with Autopilot features switched on, crashed into a highway barrier near Mountain View, California, in 2018.

The settlement comes as jury selection and a trial were just beginning on Monday in a California Superior court. The settlement allows Tesla to avoid airing evidence and testimonies in a widely-followed case.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the fatal crash and revealed, in 2020, that it found Tesla's tech was at least partly to blame for the collision, along with possible driver distraction and problematic road construction. NTSB believed that Huang had been looking at a game on his phone at some point before the collision.

The federal agency found that Tesla's forward collision warning system did not provide an alert, and its automatic emergency braking system did not activate as Huang's Model X, with Autopilot engaged, accelerated into a barrier alongside the highway 101. Faded lane markings and the barrier — or crash attenuator — positioning also may have contributed to the collision, the NTSB said in 2020.

Huang's bereaved family sued Tesla for wrongful death and their claims focused in part on alleged safety and design defects in the company's driver assistance systems. The case was Sz Huang et al v. Tesla Inc. et al in a California Superior Court in Santa Clara County.

Huang attorneys, in court filings, also pointed to social media and marketing messages from Tesla, its CEO Elon Musk and others, suggesting that Autopilot made Tesla vehicles safe to drive without needing to stay attentive to the road at all times or without needing to keep hands on the vehicle's steering wheel.

In internal Tesla e-mails referenced in court filings, Tesla execs and engineers discussed how they had become complacent while driving their Tesla vehicles with Autopilot or related premium features switched on. They described reading emails and checking their phones while driving with these systems engaged.