Tesla Settles Lawsuit Over Fatal Pedestrian Crash Involving Full Self-Driving

Tesla has settled another lawsuit that involves a death related to one of its driver assistance systems. As first reported by Bloomberg, the lawsuit, which revolves around the death of 71-year-old Johna Story in Arizona, has been resolved but terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed.

Story’s family filed the lawsuit against Tesla in 2023, following the incident where the grandmother stepped out of her car to direct traffic around a separate collision that was caused by sun glare. Story was then hit and killed by a Model Y that was using Full Self-Driving. Notably, this case was the first reported incident of a pedestrian fatality related to Tesla’s automated driving technology. Besides the lawsuit, the crash led to a federal investigation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which examined how Full Self-Driving operates in poor visibility conditions.

Unlike most other incidents involving Tesla’s driver assistance features, the lawsuit targets Full Self-Driving, which has since been rebranded to Full Self-Driving (Supervised). In the past, other legal actions filed against Tesla mention its previous Autopilot feature, like the lawsuit involving a Model X driver who crashed into a median and died while using Autopilot. Tesla has since settled that lawsuit with the victim’s family. However, Tesla is facing a new lawsuit from the family of a woman killed this month in an accident involving a Model 3 driver and the alleged use of “an automated driving assistance system.”