General Motors agreed to settle a lawsuit submitted by a motorcyclist involved in a minor crash among its self-driving cars in San Francisco late last year, the U.S. automaker stated on Friday.
Oscar Nilsson sued GM in U.S. District Court in January for negligence over a December last year crash in which he was injured.
The settlement, reported previously by car-focused website Jalopnik, was submitted on Wednesday. Lawyers stated in the joint court filing they plan to finalize details by the end of this month.
The suit of Nilsson claimed the self-driving GM Cruise “suddenly veered back” into Nilsson’s lane, striking him and knocking him to the ground.
The automaker’s report on the accident to California regulators stated the car was operating in heavy traffic, when it observed a space between two vehicles in the left lane and began to merge. At the same time, a vehicle decelerated and the self-driving car stopped making the lane change and went back to the center lane.
As the Cruise was re-centering itself, the motorcyclist that had just lane-split between two vehicles in the center and right lanes shifted into the center lane, glanced the side of the Cruise, wobbled, and fell over, the report stated. The automaker said a police report discovered Nilsson at fault for attempting to overtake and pass the Cruise, but Nilsson’s lawyer stated he was not issued a citation in the incident.
Nilsson’s suit stated he “suffered injuries to his neck and shoulder and will require lengthy treatment” and was required to take disability leave.
General Motors spokeswoman Jordana Strosberg validated in an email on Friday that both sides “mutually agreed to resolve” the lawsuit.
Sergei Lemberg, a lawyer for Nilsson, refused to reveal any details “except to confirm that the case has resolved to my client’s satisfaction.”
On Thursday, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp stated it would invest $2.25 billion in GM’s autonomous vehicle unit Cruise, a deal that sent automaker’s shares up almost 13 percent.
