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Tesla CEO Elon Musk might be ordered to testify under oath in a lawsuit that blames Autopilot, Tesla\u2019s advanced driver assistance system, for a fatal crash in 2018.<\/p>\n
The tentative ruling, issued by a California judge Wednesday and first reported on by Reuters<\/a>, came in a wrongful death lawsuit<\/a> filed by the family of Walter Huang against Tesla over a crash that killed the Apple engineer.<\/p>\n The plaintiff attorneys want to bring Musk to court to testify on recorded statements the billionaire executive made about the capabilities of Autopilot.<\/p>\n Musk had previously tweeted a 2016 promotional video for Autopilot as evidence that Tesla \u201cdrives itself\u201d with \u201cno human input at all.\u201d In January, Ashok Elluswamy, director of Autopilot software at Tesla, testified that the video was staged<\/a> using 3D mapping on a predetermined route, rather than relying on cameras, sensors and onboard compute power to actually drive autonomously.<\/p>\n Huang\u2019s family argue that the deceased over-relied on the partially automated driving software, which failed him in the end. Tesla claims that Huang was playing a video game on his phone before the crash and didn\u2019t pay attention to vehicle warnings.<\/p>\n A hearing was set for Thursday on whether to depose Musk.<\/p>\n Reuters reports that Musk will likely be questioned about a 2016 statement cited by plaintiffs in which he allegedly said: \u201cA Model S and Model X, at this point, can drive autonomously with greater safety than a person. Right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s lawyers have opposed the request in court filings. They said Musk can\u2019t recall the details of statements plaintiffs want to question him on, and that he is often the subject of \u201cdeepfake\u201d videos, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n Judge Evette Pennypacker of Santa Clara Superior Court said Tesla\u2019s arguments were \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d because they imply that as a famous person, Musk is more of a target for deepfakes, which would make his public statements immune. The result would be that Musk and other famous people could in future avoid taking ownership of what they say and do.<\/p>\n TechCrunch could not get a comment from Tesla, which disbanded its press office in 2020.<\/p>\n The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial on July 31. It will add to the growing list of litigation<\/a> and regulatory scrutiny into the automaker for its Autopilot system, which includes a criminal investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/a><\/p>\n