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Cars drive on a highway at night.The family of an Apple engineer killed in a car accident is suing Tesla, saying that the car company’s failure to include certain safety features in the engineer’s vehicle played a part in his death. 

The family of Wei Lun “Walter” H. filed a lawsuit against Tesla in Santa Clara county court on Friday. According to the family, Walter died in March 2018 after his Model X SUV crashed into a concrete barrier on the highway when it was in autopilot mode.

According to the Washington Post’s summary of Walter’s family’s car accident claim, the vehicle allegedly sped up to 71 miles per hour while in autopilot mode and crashed into the barrier without braking before the crash. Reportedly, Walter died hours later of the injuries he suffered in what was reportedly a fiery crash.

According to the family’s Tesla car accident claim, Walter purchased the vehicle believing that it was safer than other Teslas. The family argues that Tesla has safety systems that can prevent vehicles from drifting out of their lanes and running into objects, as Walter’s vehicle allegedly did, but allegedly, Tesla did not put those features in the Model X SUV.

The autopilot feature in Walter’s vehicle is described by the Washington Post as an “advanced driver-assistance system with features such as traffic-aware cruise control and lane keeping assistance that are men to keep the car at speed, maintain a safe distance from traffic and follow road markings.”

The family’s Tesla car accident claim argues that Tesla was negligent in designing the safety features of Walter’s vehicle. To support this claim, the family notes that shortly after Walter’s death, Tesla released updated models of the vehicles with safety features to prevent accidents like Walter’s.

The family also aims to hold the State of California liable for Walter’s death, saying that the California Department of Transportation did not sufficiently maintain roadside safety features. Allegedly, a “crash attenuator guard” along the road where Walter’s crash occurred had been damaged in a crash over a week before Walter’s accident, but had not been repaired.

In addition to not replacing or repairing the guard in a timely manner, the Department of Transportation allegedly failed to warn drivers that the guard was damaged and ineffective.

Walter’s family’s Tesla lawsuit argues that had the crash attenuator guard been in working order, it would have lessened the force of the crash, which would have protected Walter.

According to the Tesla car accident death class action lawsuit, the public may not be fully aware of the dangers of semi-autonomous cars like Walter’s. The family aims to make sure that these dangers are not being concealed from or misrepresented to the public.

Tesla has already faced claims that the autopilot feature in the Model S is dangerously defective, claims that were resolved with a $5.4 million settlement in December.

The Washington Post says that Tesla has ‘promised “full self-driving” capabilities for its vehicles by the end of the year’ but notes that critics worry that these promises, and the autopilot features are giving drivers a dangerous “false sense of security.” 

The Tesla Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Lawsuit is Case No. 19CV346663, in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Santa Clara.

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