Tesla has settled another wrongful death lawsuit, and it has significant implications based on Tesla’s legal strategy of not settling unless it is at fault.

Admitting a mistake is difficult. We humans are not good at it, which is why I respected Elon Musk when he said that Tesla wouldn’t seek victory in “just” legal cases against it and would “never settle an unjust case” against the company:

We will never seek victory in a just case against us, even if we will probably win. – We will never surrender/settle an unjust case against us, even if we will probably lose..

This strategy also means that if Tesla ever settles a case, it is admitting that it was in the wrong, even if settlements often come with no admission of wrongdoing.

Tesla has very rarely settled cases and Musk made this comment back in 2022. A lot has changed since then.

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In fact, around the same time Musk made that comment, he announced that he was building a team of “hardcore lawyers” at Tesla to pursue legal cases aggressively.

But it started to happen over the last few years.

In the UK, a Tesla owner challenged Tesla over its failure to deliver on its full self-driving claims and won a settlement that represented a refund of his purchase cost for FSD, with interest, after filing a claim in small claims court in 2023.

Last year, Tesla also finally settled a wrongful death lawsuit regarding the death of Model X owner Walter Huang, who was one of the first Tesla owners to die while using Autopilot back in 2018.

Now, Tesla has settled a second wrongful death lawsuit.

The estate of Clyde Leach, a Tesla Model Y owner, sued Tesla for wrongful death after his Model Y “suddenly accelerated, went off the road, and slammed into a pillar at an Ohio gas station.” Leach, 72, died from “blunt force trauma, burns, and other injuries” after the vehicle burned down following the impact.

Unlike Huang’s case, the lawsuit didn’t focus specifically on Tesla’s Autopilot or other ADAS features, but it claimed that a defect led to a “sudden acceleration” that contributed to the crash.

There have been numerous allegations of “sudden unintended acceleration” against Tesla vehicles, but in most cases, the evidence has pointed to the driver mistakenly pressing the wrong pedal.

This makes it particularly interesting that Tesla, which claims never to settle unjust claims against the company, has confirmed that it settled the case with Leach’s estate in a filing on Monday in federal court in San Francisco.

The terms of the settlement have not been released.

Electrek’s Take

In Tesla’s early days, there were numerous claims of “sudden unintended acceleration” regarding Tesla vehicles. I would often look into them, and we even had third parties review the telemetric logs; you could almost always prove pedal misplacement.

I assumed some of it also had to do with people not being used to vehicles that accelerate as quickly as Teslas, leading to less forgiving situations when pressing the wrong pedal.

However, considering Tesla settled this case and Musk’s claim that Tesla would not settle an “unjust” claim, there could be a case that sudden acceleration could occur with Tesla vehicles.

This could complicate a lot of other cases against Tesla.

Despite the will-they, won’t-they uncertainty surrounding the future of tariffs and union jobs and – let’s face it – just about everything else in every industry these days, GM says it has no plans to move production of its Ultium-based EVs from Mexico to the US.

GM has exclusively produced electric cars at its plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico since last year, and has created some 5,000 new jobs in the area according to economist Raquel Buenrostro, who currently serves as Mexico’s Secretary of Anti-Corruption and Good Government. And those cars – including the popular Chevy Equinox EV and Honda’s hot-selling Prologue – have been huge hits in their respective segments.

The General seems to know a good thing when it sees one, so it should come as no surprise to learn that GM has no plans to scuttle its assembly lines out of the country.

“At this time, GM has no plans to halt or relocate production of any of our EV models made in Mexico,” the director of GM de México’s EV operations, Adrián Enciso, told the Spanish-language newspaper, Milenio. “It’s possible that additional models, such as (the new 2026 Chevy Spark) could be built here, too.”

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Market Watch is reporting that the proposed tariffs, if they take effect, could raise GM’s cost to make electric cars in Mexico by up to $4,300 per vehicle. But while that could put a significant per-unit dent in GM’s profits, it’s worth noting that the EVs might continue to be built in Mexico and sold in Canada and other markets – the new Spark, especially, is targeted towards Central and South America, anyway.

And, frankly, GM can afford it.

SOURCE: Mexico News Daily.

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The mining equipment experts at Epiroc will supply a fleet of autonomous, zero-emission electric Pit Viper 271E and SmartROC D65 BE drill rigs at a number of Australian mines operated by multinational metals firm, Fortescue.

The $350 million AUD (approx. $225 million US) deal will see Epiroc AB supply its customer, Fortescue, with a number of blast hole drill rigs powered by either a cable connection to grid energy or, for more remote sites, batteries.

Fortescue will put the rigs to work at its iron ore mines in the Pilbara region in Western Australia. The driverless machines will eventually be operated fully autonomously, overseen by remote operators at Fortescue’s Integrated Operations Centre in Perth – more than 1,500 km away!

Epiroc says the machines will eliminate around 35 million liters of diesel consumption annually, according to Fortescue.

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“Fortescue is at the forefront of the mining industry in reducing emissions from operations, and in using automation to strengthen safety and productivity, and we are proud to support them on this important effort,” says Epiroc President Helena Hedblom. “Not only is this the largest contract we have ever received, but it is also a major step forward for our electric-powered surface equipment. We look forward to contributing to Fortescue’s continued success now and in the future.”

The Pit Viper 271 E rotary blast hole drill rig that offers the same levels of performance that the diesel Pit Viper line is acclaimed for. Its patented cable feed system that prolongs component longevity and reduces operational costs. The SmartROC D65 BE is a new, battery-electric version of the proven SmartROC D65 drill rig. They’re manufactured in Texas and Sweden, respectively.

Fortescue has been a pioneer in the electrification of the mining industry, whether it’s converting its massive Liebherr excavators to electric, funding the development of 6MW EV chargers, or deploying autonomous electric drill rigs like these in their mines – they’re well on their way to achieving their goal of carbon neutral operations by 2030.

Electrek’s Take

From drilling and rigging to heavy haul solutions, companies like Fortescue and Epiroc are proving that electric equipment is more than up to the task of moving dirt and pulling stuff out of the ground. At the same time, rising demand for nickel, lithium, and phosphates combined with the natural benefits of electrification are driving the adoption of electric mining machines while a persistent operator shortage is boosting demand for autonomous tech in those machines.

We covered the market outlook for autonomous and electric mining equipment earlier this summer, and I posted an episode exploring the growing demand for electric equipment on an episode of Quick Charge I’ve embedded, below. Check it out, then let us know what you think of the future of electric mining in the comments.

More EVs means more mines

SOURCE | IMAGES: Epiroc.