Tesla Quietly Settles Suit Over Pedestrian Killed By FSD

Happy Friday! It's June 26, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're looking at Tesla's latest settlement, and Kia keeping its head above water as auto sales sink. We'll also look at Jaguar's new era, and Honda perpetuating an age. 

Back in 2023, a Tesla running the company's Full Self-Driving software suite killed a 71-year-old woman. Now, the company has finally settled its lawsuit over the matter, for an undisclosed amount of money. From Bloomberg: 

Tesla Inc. has quietly resolved a lawsuit stemming from a fatal 2023 crash that precipitated a defect investigation into the carmaker's automated-driving technology.

The collision involved 71-year-old Johna Story, who had stepped out of her vehicle on an Arizona highway to help direct traffic around cars that had already crashed due to blinding sun glare. Moments later, she was struck at high speed by a Tesla Model Y SUV using the company's so-called Full Self-Driving system.

Story's death — one of 40,901 on US roads that year — was the first known pedestrian fatality linked to Tesla's automation technology. The crash prompted a federal investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a lawsuit from Story's daughter against Tesla and the driver.

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Bloomberg News published an investigation last year that examined whether sun glare can compromise Tesla's camera-based automated-driving system. The report reconstructed the crash in part through videos and photos obtained via pubic-records requests.

It's almost like relying purely on camera data, with no radar or lidar, has problems! I hope Story's family was well-compensated. It's not like there's any amount of money that will bring a human being back from the dead, but there's an amount that will make Tesla feel the sting of having taken her before her time. I doubt the company felt it enough. 

Auto sales are in a rough spot right now, owing to high gas prices that stem from the U.S. and Israel's extremely dumb war on Iran. The one bright spot in the mix seems to be Kia, where sales are actually up. From Bloomberg: 

Kia Corp. is bucking a global slowdown in auto demand after surging gasoline prices during the Iran war boosted demand for electric vehicles in Europe and hybrids in the US, Chief Executive Officer Song Ho-sung said.

While industry demand fell about 5% worldwide between January and May, the South Korean automaker's sales climbed more than 4%, Song said at the Busan Mobility Show on Friday. That pushed Kia's global market share above 4%, he added.

That momentum will probably continue even after the war ends, he said.

"The war is an area of concern, but even after it concludes, we expect high oil prices to persist for the time being," Song said in a later interview. "While regional demand varies, this environment will push the appetite for EVs and hybrids higher."

Good for Kia. The company makes good cars for good prices, and it turns out that plan still works. Who would've thought? 

Jaguar is beginning a new era, starting with the Type 01 production car inspired by the Type 00 concept. That car, it seems, will debut in the greatest city in the world — and it'll likely debut sooner rather than alter. From Automotive News:

The next major step in relaunching the Jaguar brand is scheduled for October with the introduction of the Type 01. It's the first of three planned high-performance ultraluxury electric vehicles in the $150,000 range.A JLR North American spokesperson confirmed a U.K. report that the production version of the Type 01 will make its world debut in New York but gave no other details. The over 1,000-hp car will get a private unveiling rather than a public premiere like the concept version received in December 2024 at Miami Art Week.When assembly of the Type 01 begins later this year, it will end one of Jaguar's longest production gaps since World War II.The brand has not produced any vehicles since December. It built up a stock of F-Pace crossovers to help the company's 92 U.S. dealers get through 2026. The Type 01 is scheduled to reach dealerships in early 2027.

I don't think I've gotten a chance to rant about this yet, so I'm going to get on my soapbox here: The Type 00 concept reveal was in no way "woke." Jaguar debuted an art deco luxury car — a style that's swinging back into vogue across the industry, with plenty of ultra-luxe automakers borrowing from the same design inspiration — with models. If the models looked androgynous, that's not Jaguar's doing. That's just what models look like now. 

Go look at any runway, and you'll find a bunch of clothes hanging loosely off runway models so skinny as to have any gendered features shorn off. Short hair shows off collars, buccal fat removal hollows the cheeks, models all look the same now. Jaguar isn't trying to be nonbinary, it's just trying to be fashionable — and fashion is a little bit nonbinary with it right now.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe had the gall to approve a couple of electric cars, an incredible and historic misstep in the face of the entirely predictable second Trump administration and its immediate and wild swings against anything electric. Investors in the company have been incensed, and have all but called for Mibe's head — yet he survived a shareholder vote, and will remain on the board. From Reuters: 

TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) – Honda Motor Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe secured support for his reappointment to the Japanese automaker's board at its annual meeting ​ on Friday after apologising to shareholders for the company's poor financial performance.

Honda is ‌seeking to recover from costly strategic missteps after posting its first annual loss in seven decades last month, hurt by more than $9 billion in restructuring costs for its electric-vehicle business and competition from Chinese rivals.

"I would like to ​express my deepest apologies to our shareholders for the significant concern and inconvenience caused ​by the net loss recorded in the previous fiscal year's financial results," Mibe ⁠told shareholders at the start of the meeting.

How dare he try to make cars that will kill the world slightly slower than the other cars. Who the hell does he think he is?

The Supreme Court has all but specifically asked for challenges to Obergefell, calling the case out by name in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health (alongside other decisions like Loving v. Virginia, which allowed interracial marriage, Griswold v. Connecticut, which allowed access to contraception, and Lawrence v. Texas, which allowed the "right to engage in private, consensual sexual acts") as a decision that rested on the same type of reasoning as Roe v. Wade — reasoning the court overturned as not "being deeply rooted in history." Yes, the court turned down a challenge to Obergefell in Davis v. Ermold, but that was just a bad case. Isn't it fun to know that our rights exist at the whims of seven people in robes in DC? 

Fuel costs keep tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down.

Are we sure Damon Albarn doesn't have any gender going on? You can tell us, Damon. It's Pride.