Tesla wants Apple to help them prove its engineer was playing games on his ... trends now
Tesla is seeking help from Apple to prove an engineer who was killed in a fiery crash while his vehicle was on Autopilot mode was playing games on his phone at the time of the smash.
Walter Huang died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier on a California freeway in March 2018.
An investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board revealed the Apple engineer was using his smartphone and did not have his hands on the wheel at the time of the crash.
Lawyers from Tesla say analysis of his iPhone showed that he was playing Sega's Total War: Three Kingdoms when the collision occurred, Mercury News reports.
But attorneys for Huang's family, who are attempting to sue the automaker, argued that Tesla cannot prove Huang was playing the game just because the app was open on his screen.
Tesla has said Apple engineer Walter Huang who was killed in a fiery crash while his vehicle was in self-driving mode was playing at the time
Huang died when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier on a California freeway in March 2018. Pictured Huang with wife Sevonne
Lawyers from Tesla say analysis of his iPhone showed that he was playing Sega's Total War: Three Kingdoms when the collision occurred
Both sides are battling over whether Tesla can call Apple engineering manager James Harding as witness.
Harding analyzed Huang's phone and determined it 'suggests possible user interaction, which might be a screen touch or button press'.
His family's lawyers countered in a court filing that Tesla deliberately hid its questioning of Harding from them until after pretrial fact-finding deadlines.
They are pushing Apple to hand over more information, but the tech giant is resisting as it does not want to hand over confidential material.
The US NTSB investigation was unable to provide a definitive reason for the crash.
It found it was likely to a combination of 'limitations' with the autopilot software and 'lack of response due to distraction likely from a cell phone game application and overreliance' on the self-driving feature.
The body also slammed California officials for failing to fix the barrier after it was damaged
