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Tesla seeks Apple help to prove driver Walter Huang who died in Autopilot crash was playing video game on his phone

  • The victim’s lawyers said Apple was ‘secretly’ manoeuvring to support Tesla’s attempt to blame distracted driving for the 2018 accident
  • The two sides are sparring over whether the car company can call an Apple worker as a witness for a trial set to start next week in San Jose

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Emergency personnel work at the scene where a Tesla car crashed into a highway barrier in California’s Mountain View in 2018. Photo: KTVU-TV via AP
Bloomberg
Tesla Inc. is relying on technical support from Apple Inc. as the car company seeks to prove at a coming high-profile trial over the safety of its Autopilot system that a Model X driver who worked for iPhone maker was playing a video game on his phone when he crashed and died.
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Lawyers for the family of Walter Huang, an engineer who was killed on his commute to work, say his former employer is “secretly” manoeuvring to support Tesla’s attempt to blame distracted driving for the wreck.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation had failed to reach a definitive conclusion about what Huang was doing in the final seconds before impact.

Based on forensic examinations of Huang’s iPhone, Tesla has said he was playing Sega’s Total War: Three Kingdoms at the time of the crash, though the Huang family’s lawyers say Tesla cannot prove that just because the app was open on his screen.

The two sides are sparring over whether Tesla can call an Apple engineering manager as a witness for a two-month trial set to start next week in state court in San Jose.

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