What happened

Gao Yaning's Tesla Model S was traveling at moderate highway speed in the lane shared partially by the parked sweeper and apparently did not brake or change lanes to avoid the obstacle.  

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted road police as saying the car did not brake before crashing into the vehicle, a claim backed by Tesla which said Yaning had failed to take action, even though the road sweeper 'was visible for nearly 20 seconds.'

Fatality and crash footage were later released, showing no evasive driver or Autopilot action before the collision. 

Why it happened 

The family claims the Tesla was driving with Autopilot engaged but it failed to respond to the stationary road sweeper. 

Tesla acknowledged the system was active before the crash but argued it could not confirm exact details as crash damage disabled its ability to retrieve the data. 

Police initially blamed the driver. 

Gao's family later filed a lawsuit in Beijing against Tesla and the dealership that sold the car for exaggerating Autopilot’s capabilities, and demanded an apology - a move that forced Tesla to admit that Autopilot had been engaged two minutes before the crash. 

Tesla subsequently removed the term Autopilot and a Chinese term for 'self-driving' ('zi dong jia shi') from its local website and marketing materials, changing it to 'zi dong fu zhu jia shi', meaning a driver-assist system, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The family had initially sued Tesla for 1 yuan to raise public attention, but increased their compensation demands to 10,000 yuan (USD 1,499) and legal costs, and then to 5 million yuan (USD 750,000).