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      Tesla Settles Lawsuit Over a Fatal Crash Involving Autopilot

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      A Tesla driver’s family had sought damages for the 2018 crash, which happened while the carmaker’s driver-assistance software was in use.Tesla on Monday settled a lawsuit that blamed the automaker’s driver-assistance software for the death of a California man in 2018, averting a trial that would have focused attention on the company’s technology several months before it plans to unveil a self-driving taxi.The trial stemming from the death of Wei Lun Huang, an Apple software engineer who went by Walter, was scheduled to start Monday with jury selection. The case was one of the most prominent involving Tesla’s Autopilot software, attracting significant public attention and prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.Terms of the settlement with Mr. Huang’s children and other members of his family were not disclosed, and Tesla filed court documents seeking to prevent them from being made public.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.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. Tesla is worth more than any other carmaker even though its shares have plunged in recent months.Mr. Musk said on X last week that Tesla would introduce a self-driving taxi, Robotaxi, in August. If Tesla has in fact perfected a vehicle that can ferry passengers without a driver — which many analysts doubt — the development will help answer criticism that the company has been slow to follow up its Model 3 sedan and Model Y sport utility vehicle with new products.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      California Highway 1 Collapse Leaves 2,000 Tourists Stranded

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      Many stayed in temporary shelters, hotels and campgrounds overnight on Saturday, while some slept in their cars. A portion of scenic Highway 1 in the Big Sur area of California collapsed Saturday stranding about 2,000 motorists, mostly tourists, overnight.Officials with the California Department of Transportation said on Sunday that a section of the southbound highway located in the Central Coast, would remain closed to the public while crews worked on the affected areas. Large chunks of the road fell into the ocean. The highway, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, features stretches of rocky cliffs, lush mountains, panoramic beaches and coastal redwood forests.There were no reported injuries. Caltrans, the agency, did not give an estimate of when it expected to fully reopen the highway. Officials did not say what led to the collapse, but torrential rain battered the area near Rocky Creek Bridge, which is about 17 miles south of Monterey. Kevin Drabinski, a spokesman for Caltrans, said the officials determined that the damage was severe enough to close the highway for motorists Saturday afternoon.“Caltrans became aware that we had lost portion of the southbound lane and that necessitated a full closure of Highway 1,” Mr. Drabinski said. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Truck Driver Charged Over Role in Deadly ‘Super Fog’ Pileup in Louisiana

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      Seven people were killed. The driver, Ronald Britt, is charged with negligent homicide in a crash that killed one of them.A truck driver faces charges including negligent homicide related to his role in a highway crash during a dense “super fog” in Louisiana in October that caused a huge traffic pileup and left seven people dead and dozens injured, the authorities said this week.The man, Ronald Britt of Lafayette, was driving an 80,000-pound vehicle at around 60 m.p.h. on Oct. 23 when, having not slowed down despite the severe weather, he crashed into the car ahead of him on Interstate 55 northwest of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Police said on Tuesday in a news release. The impact killed a 60-year-old man, James Fleming of Missouri, and severely injured his wife, Barbara Fleming, 69, the police said.“It was determined that Britt was operating at a negligent speed, given the driving conditions at the time,” the police said, which led to the death of the man and the injuries sustained by his wife.Poor weather conditions and limited visibility meant vehicles could not safely exit the highway, the police said, causing congestion and “multiple crashes.” Mr. Fleming had managed to stop his vehicle safely, they said, but was “unable to move his vehicle to a safer location off the road.”Louisiana state law requires that drivers maintain a safe speed appropriate for the prevailing driving conditions.Mr. Britt, 61, surrendered to the authorities on Monday and was also charged with negligent injuring, reckless operation and other traffic offenses, the police said. It was not immediately clear whether he had legal representation.In Louisiana, negligent homicide carries a maximum of five years in prison, a $5,000 fine or both.The crash was one of several that day, the authorities said, as an impenetrable mist shrouded the area. Seven people died and 63 were injured in the large traffic pileup, which involved at least 168 vehicles, the police said. They originally reported that eight people had died but later revised that figure, citing “intense fires” that “complicated the identification of victims.” More

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      Firefighter Rescues Driver in Truck Hanging Over Kentucky Bridge

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      For nearly an hour, the driver was trapped in a tractor-trailer leaning over the side of a Kentucky bridge until a firefighter lowered on a rope made a daring rescue.A rescuer pulled the woman to safety after a crash left the vehicle hanging over the Ohio River on a bridge in Louisville, Ky.John Sommers Alamy Live News, via Associated PressFor nearly an hour, the driver of a tractor-trailer was trapped in its cab as it dangled high above the Ohio River off the side of a Kentucky bridge after a multivehicle crash on Friday.From the bridge, emergency responders shouted directions to the driver. Emergency crews set up a rope system and lowered a Louisville, Ky., firefighter, Bryce Carden, to rescue her.“Thank God,” the driver said when Mr. Carden drew even with the truck’s cab, he recalled at a news conference on Friday.Initially, Mr. Carden said, he struggled to free the driver from her seatbelt.“We were given a free pocketknife during our trainings, and I had that pocketknife on me, so I was able to cut her out of her seatbelt,” he said in a phone interview on Saturday. “I was able to get her out and get the rest of the harness on her.”The driver and Mr. Carden, who were now attached to each other, were about 100 feet above the river as they were lifted up to the bridge, a process that took about five minutes.“I kept telling her ‘I have you, I have you,’” Mr. Carden said on Saturday. “She was just thanking God, and then I told her, ‘Let’s just keep praying together.’”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At Least 1 Dead and 5 Injured After Vehicle Crashes Into Texas Hospital

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      Police were investigating what caused the crash at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center.One person died and at least five people were injured, including two children, after a vehicle crashed into a hospital emergency room in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, the authorities said.The vehicle crashed into the St. David’s North Austin Medical Center at 5:38 p.m., the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said on social media, adding that two children and one adult were taken to the Dell Children’s Medical Center.One child had “potentially serious injuries,” and the adult and the other child had injuries that were not life-threatening, the authorities said.A second adult was taken to the St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center with “potentially serious injuries,” county officials said.The driver of the car died, officials said.Police were investigating the crash, Captain Christa Stedman, a spokeswoman for the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, said at a news conference on Tuesday night.Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services initially reported that as many as 10 people had been injured, but officials said later that five people were injured.Dr. Peter DeYoung, chief medical officer of St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, said at the news conference that another eight patients, who were not injured in the crash, were being taken to other hospitals to help the emergency room regroup. The hospital’s emergency room was prepared to handle walk-in patients, but it was closed to ambulances, Dr. DeYoung said.“We are in the process of sending patients away so we can better manage,” he said.None of the hospital’s operations were disrupted outside of the emergency department, Dr. DeYoung said, adding that the facility was in “good condition” despite damage to the building’s doors and exteriors.Video of the aftermath posted to social media showed a chaotic scene.The vehicle appeared to leave a trail of mangled waiting chairs inside the emergency room before it became pinned in a hall near the reception desk. The room appeared mostly cleared, but officials and hospital staff could be seen pulling what appeared to be one adult out of the wreckage.The car’s tires could be heard screeching and its engine was still heaving as it filled the room with white smoke, its red taillights still visible. More

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      Tesla Recalls About 2.2 Million Electric Vehicles Over Warning Light Font Size

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      The vehicles were recalled because the font size on a warning lights panel was too small. Tesla will address the issue with a software update.Tesla is recalling about 2.2 million vehicles because the font on the warning lights panel was too small to comply with safety standards, U.S. regulators said on Friday.“Warning lights with a smaller font size can make critical safety information on the instrument panel difficult to read, increasing the risk of a crash,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a notice.The recall is one of several that Tesla has made in recent years, a setback for the company, the dominant maker of electric vehicles in the United States. In another hurdle for Tesla, the safety administration, said in a separate notice that a U.S. government investigation into steering issues that may have affected 334,000 Tesla vehicles was escalated to an engineering analysis.The probe, which was opened in July, reviewed more than 2,000 complaints about loss of steering control in the 2023 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles. Tesla drivers who made complaints said they had been unable to turn the steering wheel, or that turning it required increased effort. A majority of people who complained about this issue reported seeing a warning message, “Steering assist reduced,” either before, during or after they had experienced a loss of steering control.“A portion of drivers described their steering begin to feel ‘notchy’ or ‘clicky’ either prior to or just after the incident,” the agency said. The regulator added that its office of defects investigation was aware of more than 50 vehicles that were towed from places including driveways, parking lots, roadsides and intersections, apparently because of steering-related issues.Tesla is releasing a software update that will fix the issue free of charge, the safety administration said. The models affected include the 2012 to 2023 Model S, the 2016 to 2024 Model X, the 2017 to 2023 Model 3, 2019 to 2024 Model Y and 2024 Cybertruck vehicles.In December, the company recalled more than two million vehicles, including its most popular, the Model Y sport-utility vehicle, after federal officials said that it had not done enough to ensure that drivers remained attentive when using a system that can steer, accelerate and brake cars automatically. That recall covered nearly all cars the company had manufactured in the United States since 2012.In January, the Chinese government announced that Tesla would recall nearly all the 1.6 million cars it had sold in the country to adjust their assisted-driving systems. It was a stumbling block for the company, which has emerged as the only Western automaker that can compete with Chinese manufacturers in the global electric car sector. China is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing market for electric cars.Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Reuters reported in December that tens of thousands of Tesla customers had complained to the company about failures of suspension or steering parts. Tesla blamed drivers, even though it had been tracking the issues for years and knew more about them than it disclosed to regulators, Reuters found. More

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      Unsafe Roads: The Perils of Riding E-Bikes

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      More from our inbox:Why Indictments Boost Trump’s PopularityRename the Audubon SocietyRon DeSantis, BullyAshely Kingsley and her daughter, Scout, at Charlie’s Electric Bike store in Encinitas, where they were renting e-bikes for the day.Ariana Drehsler for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Teenagers’ Accidents Expose the Risks of E-Bikes” (front page, July 31):While it is clear that stronger regulation around the speeds of e-bikes is needed, roadway design determines the safety of our communities.What we are seeing is the deadly consequences of a system built for cars and cars only. As one of the people quoted in the article notes, the bikes’ speed is “too fast for sidewalks, but it’s too slow to be in traffic.”In a better system, bikes and cars would not have to share the road, and our roads would be designed to accommodate the reality that people get around in different ways, and everyone deserves to get around safely.Bikes are not motorcycles, and they should not be treated as if they were. These crashes are happening because people on bikes are forced to use unsafe roadways around cars that are often going too fast.Earl BlumenauerPortland, Ore.The writer, a member of Congress, is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus.To the Editor:I have been riding motorcycles since 1972. One of the first things you learn, either from hard experience or from older riders, is that you are invisible to most traffic. They aren’t looking for you, so they don’t see you. E-bikes are even smaller, so the problem is likely worse.I rode one of the faster e-bikes about a month ago. It had a top speed of 35 miles per hour and was much closer to being a motorcycle than a bicycle. Parents, law enforcement and legislators need to wake up to that reality.Dale LeppoHudson, OhioTo the Editor:While “Teenagers’ Accidents Expose the Risks of E-Bikes” demonstrates the need for safety in planning and organizing the e-bike rollout, I think it’s important to note that the deaths and injuries cited are due to car drivers, not e-bike riders.As the article states, 15-year-old Brodee Champlain “did everything right,” including signaling to make a left turn, before a driver hit him. To frame such accidents as the fault of the e-bike is blaming the victim rather than the cause.Nor is this a problem that will be helped by slowing the introduction of e-bikes to our streets. The fewer people driving cars, the fewer e-bike accidents there will be.The best way, then, to make cyclists safer is to build up the cycling infrastructure and substantively change our cities’ car-centric design, rather than trying to regulate e-bikes around two-ton vehicles that are far deadlier.Charles BonkowskySalt Lake CityThe writer is an intern at the Salt Lake City Sustainability Department.To the Editor:As a former New Yorker, I thought I was accustomed to the perils of pedestrians when out and about, but I had a rude awakening upon moving to Southern California, where e-bikes are ubiquitous. The amazing climate and hilly terrain make it easy to understand why e-bikes have become so popular here, and they provide a handy alternative form of transportation for kids with busy parents.But seeing young people, often preteens, zip around at 30-plus miles an hour while looking at their phones or drinking a soda makes me concerned for the pedestrians who share the sidewalks with them and for the kids themselves.Regulation is needed before more lives are lost.Leigh JonesAliso Viejo, Calif.Why Indictments Boost Trump’s Popularity Mark Peterson for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Each Indictment Solidifies Trump’s Base,” by Rich Lowry (Opinion guest essay, Aug. 8):Mr. Lowry points out that Donald Trump’s recent indictments have enhanced his popularity with the Republican base.It is not that his supporters like him despite his wrongdoing; they adore him specifically because he thumbs his nose at the laws, rules and institutions that are the basis for our democracy. They are angry at the status quo and the foundational aspects of our government, and Mr. Trump appears anathema to what they perceive as the “deep state.”Mr. Lowry glosses over the Russia investigation and claims that in the end Mr. Trump was “vindicated.” This is nonsense. A clear case was made that Mr. Trump obstructed justice in the Mueller inquiry. Since he was never indicted for his attempts to thwart that investigation, he continued to obstruct justice in the cases for which he will now have to appear before a judge and jury.The next two years will test this nation in many ways because of the actions of Donald Trump.Ellen Silverman PopperQueensTo the Editor:During every campaign Republican politicians and pundits like Rich Lowry pound their fists and scream about “law and order!” But when it comes to Donald Trump’s rampant criminality, they promote every excuse in the book not to hold him accountable — the most ridiculous one being that it will just make him more popular with the MAGA crowd.We’ve heard that since the day Mr. Trump boasted about hypothetically shooting a person on Fifth Avenue with no loss of support. We’ve heard it a thousand times. His supporters’ sense of perpetual grievance is being fanned daily on Fox and Breitbart and even in the pages of Mr. Lowry’s publication, National Review.Mr. Lowry should have used his essay not to reinforce predictable right-wing talking points, but to persuade people on his side of the aisle that these indictments are not only appropriate, but absolutely critical to a healthy, functioning democracy.Bud LaveryHighland, N.Y.Rename the Audubon Society Hannah Beier for The New York TimesTo the Editor:“Rising Racial Tensions Shake a Tranquil Pastime” (front page, Aug. 9) reports on a feud within the National Audubon Society, including “the question of whether the conservation group should drop its eponym, John James Audubon, who owned slaves.”I grew up worshiping the Audubon “brand” as a youthful birder, spent the better part of 20 years on the staff of the Audubon Society, and have studied and written about the life of John James Audubon. (Parts of a biographical sketch I wrote are still found on the Audubon.org website.)Here’s why I think the Audubon name should be dropped.It is essential in 2023 that we welcome birders of every background to the movement. The future of conservation depends on it. Social justice and conservation are deeply intertwined; they point to a sustainable future. And names are just a cultural artifact. There is no compelling reason to keep the Audubon name, just as we wouldn’t do for other enslavers and Confederate generals.I have a suggestion: Rename it the American Society for the Protection of Birds, to borrow a page from our friends across the pond in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Problem solved.Fred BaumgartenHaydenville, Mass.Ron DeSantis, BullyGov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, this month.Rachel Mummey for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “DeSantis Suspends a 2nd Elected Prosecutor in Florida, a Democrat in Orlando” (news article, Aug. 10):Our hapless governor and would-be president, Ron DeSantis, goes back to the only thing that’s consistently worked for him: bullying.David ReddyTampa, Fla. More

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      DeSantis Is Unhurt After Car Crash in Tennessee

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      The crash occurred in Chattanooga as Mr. DeSantis and his team were traveling to a fund-raiser there, a spokesman said.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was involved in a car crash in Chattanooga, Tenn., on his way to a fund-raiser there on Tuesday, according to his spokesman, who added that Mr. DeSantis was unhurt.“This morning, the governor was in a car accident while traveling to an event in Chattanooga, Tenn.,” Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for Mr. DeSantis’s presidential campaign, said in a statement. “He and his team are uninjured. We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail.”A spokesman for the Chattanooga Police Department said that Mr. DeSantis’s four-car motorcade was traveling on Interstate 75 on Tuesday morning when traffic suddenly slowed, causing the lead vehicle to brake sharply and resulting in a pileup.Only vehicles in the governor’s motorcade were involved, and the police were called around 8:15 a.m., according to the police spokesman, Kevin West.“I don’t think they were going real fast,” Mr. West said.He added that a female staff member had suffered what he described as “minor injuries,” but that she was able to attend the event alongside Mr. DeSantis.The campaign said that the staff member “was assessed on site by medical personnel and cleared to depart.”Mr. DeSantis was scheduled to attend a fund-raiser in Chattanooga held by local Republicans on Tuesday, as well as events in Knoxville and Franklin. More