Tesla faces further autopilot accusations from China lawsuit

A Chinese father has accused Tesla's autopilot system of being at fault for his son's death, in a lawsuit against the company in the country.

Tesla came under fire after a similar high-profile accident in Florida earlier this year, which led to the death of Joshua Brown, who was said to have been using the Model S' self-driving technology.

Gao Jubin's son Gao Yaning was killed in January when his car hit a truck on a motorway. The case began on Tuesday in Beijing, with Jubin alleging that both Tesla and the dealer who sold the car misled him.

Elon Musk and his company have repeatedly said that the autopilot system is not supposed to be used as a replacement for the driver, who must remain in control of the vehicle.

The company released a statement denying any responsibility for the incident in China.

It said that there was "no evidence that autopilot was engaged at the time of the accident", and that in any case, autopilot is a "driver assistance system that supplements an attentive driver".

"Even though an upcoming obstacle was visible for nearly 20 seconds, the driver did not take any action to avoid it or do anything else to maintain control of the vehicle," Tesla added.