Father of Chinese man killed in Tesla crash files lawsuit over Autopilot system

The father of a man killed while driving a Tesla vehicle in China filed a lawsuit against the US carmaker in Beijing, calling for an investigation into whether there was a fault with the Autopilot system that led to the fatal accident, according to state media.

Gao Yaning, 23, died on January 20 after his white Tesla Model S crashed into a road-sweeping vehicle on a highway in the northern province of Hebei, state-run broadcaster China Central Television reported.

A police investigation showed that Gao’s sedan did not take any action to slow down or avoid the road-sweeping vehicle before the collision, according to the television report aired by state media.

Six months after the accident, the victim’s father Gao Jubin brought the case to a court in the Chaoyang district of Beijing, alleging that the accident happened when the Model S sedan was in Autopilot mode and accusing Tesla of exaggerating the function’s capabilities.

“Because of the damage caused by the collision, the car was physically incapable of transmitting log data to our servers and we therefore have no way of knowing whether or not Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash,” a Tesla spokesperson said in an email to the Post. “We have tried repeatedly to work with our customer to investigate the cause of the crash, but he has not provided us with any additional information that would allow us to do so.”

Geoff Boyd, head of auto and steel research with CLSA in Hong Kong, said; “Tesla is now trying to improve its software and remind people that they should keep their hands on the wheel when using Autopilot...and it may also be considering playing down the complete self-driving solution going forward.”