Tesla has settled a lawsuit over a 2018 car crash that killed an Apple engineer in 2018 after his Model X operating on Autopilot swerved off a highway near San Francisco, court documents showed on Monday. The settlement would help Tesla avoid a lengthy jury trial over what role its Autopilot driver-assistance technology may have played in the crash. The case involves a highway accident that killed Walter Huang. Tesla had contended Huang misused the system because he was playing a video game just before the accident. Huang's family had alleged Autopilot steered his 2017 Model X into a highway barrier. Lawyers for Huang's family had also raised questions about whether Tesla understood drivers likely would not or could not use the system as directed, and what steps the automaker took to protect them.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and Tesla filed court documents seeking to prevent them from being made public. The trial was scheduled to start with jury selection, attracting significant public attention and prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Testimony in the trial would have put Tesla's autonomous driving software under close scrutiny, further fueling a debate about whether the technology makes cars safer or exposes drivers and others to serious injury or death.

This settlement comes as Tesla plans to unveil a self-driving taxi, Robotaxi, in August. Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has said the company's self-driving software will generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. Investors have used his claims to justify the company's lofty stock market valuation. If Tesla has in fact perfected a vehicle that can ferry passengers without a driver, it will help answer criticism that the company has been slow to follow up its previous models with new products. The settlement of this lawsuit will likely have a significant impact on the ongoing debate surrounding autonomous driving technology and its safety implications.