Tesla Keeps Japanese Pedestrian-Death Case Out of U.S. Court

A Japanese family’s wrongful death lawsuit blaming Tesla Inc.'s Autopilot driver-assist system for an accident near Tokyo was properly dismissed from federal court in California in favor of litigating the case in Japan, as Tesla urged, the Ninth Circuit said Monday.

Tesla can produce evidence about the design of Autopilot in a Japanese court and has agreed to corporate depositions under U.S. rules, the appeals court said. The suit concerns the first alleged Autopilot-related death involving a pedestrian.

The lower court conditioned the dismissal on Tesla agreeing to be sued in Japan.

Yoshihiro Umeda’s family alleged that a Tesla Model ...