- Tesla is being sued by the family of an Apple engineer who died in 2018 after his Model X crashed.
- The family accused Tesla's Autopilot feature of being "defective" and the cause of the collision.
- Tesla plans to argue that the Apple engineer was distracted on his phone as the case goes to trial.
Tesla is set to go to trial next week over a lawsuit brought against it in 2019 over the role its Autopilot feature played in the fatal crash of Wei "Walter" Huang, an Apple engineer.
And now, in the 11th hour, Tesla hopes to involve Apple itself in the case by calling an engineer as a witness in an attempt to prove Huang was at fault for the collision.
Tesla plans to introduce a sworn statement from the Apple employee to argue that Huang, who died in 2018 after his Model X crashed into a safety barrier while the vehicle was on Autopilot, was distracted by playing a game on his iPhone, according to court documents viewed by Business Insider.
The family of Huang filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Tesla in 2019, accusing the automaker's Autopilot feature of being "defective in its design." Due to the faults of the feature, the family argued Tesla was responsible for Huang's death.
Tesla previously told Business Insider in 2018 that the "only" explanation for the crash was Huang's inattentiveness, an argument that the carmaker continues to rely on as it faces legal battles regarding its autopilot function.
Tesla did not respond to BI's request for comment.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) previously concluded that, while there was no singular cause for the crash, Tesla's Autopilot had "system limitations" and that Huang had a game open on his phone, putting too much faith in the Autopilot function, prior to the crash.
However, investigators were unable to determine if Huang was actively playing the game before the collision, according to the NTSB report. Huang's family argues that Huang was letting the game run passively on his phone.
Now, less than a week before the case is set to go to trial on April 8, Tesla introduced the sworn statement from an Apple employee. They are also seeking to call the Apple employee as a witness in the trial, but attorneys for Huang's family are pushing back.
The written statement from Apple engineer James Harding claims that data extracted from Huang's iPhone 8 showed he was actively on his phone at the time of the crash.
Attorneys representing the Huang family accused Apple in recently filed court documents of "engaging in a secret discovery 'work around' to help support Tesla in its defense."
Huang family attorneys say Tesla revealed the first sworn statement signed by Harding five months after the discovery process ended and then produced the second sworn statement only three days before trial.
An Apple spokesperson and an attorney for the Huang family declined to comment.
Following Harding's more recent sworn statement, attorneys for the Huang family subpoenaed Apple to acquire more information about Harding's testimony. However, Apple argued that the attorneys were asking for a "substantial volume" of "privileged" material.
Apple said in an application to quash the subpoena that it was "not a party to this case, has never appeared, and has not received any notice of entry of order relating to the dispute."
"While Apple is ready to work in good faith with the Parties and to fulfill its obligations as a non-party witness, it is very unclear on its present obligations and seeks guidance from the Court," the filing said.
By attempting to quash the subpoena by the plaintiffs and seeking a protective order, Apple is trying to prevent attorneys from questioning Harding before the trial, the Huang family argued in a March 29 court filing.
Tesla faces several lawsuits concerning its Autopilot function.
