Mary “Missy” Cummings, Duke University professor and vocal skeptic of Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot system, has been changed as an knowledgeable witness in a swimsuit towards the corporate over a deadly crash after she was appointed to a US authorities job.

Cummings was not out there after her appointment in October as a senior security adviser for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, based on courtroom filings.

She’ll get replaced by Ella Atkins, a University of Michigan professor and an knowledgeable in autonomous aerospace techniques, filings present.

The lawsuit was filed by the household of Jeremy Banner, 50, who died in 2019 after his Tesla Model 3 crashed right into a semi-trailer truck on a Florida freeway. Cummings was alleged to testify about what function the driver-assistance expertise performed within the collision.

The household requested the decide on Tuesday to delay a trial set for Jan 25 to permit for extra time to depose the brand new knowledgeable on whether or not the electrical car maker was answerable for Banner’s loss of life.

Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, an unapologetic champion of Autopilot expertise, and hundreds of Tesla followers and clients protested the appointment of Cummings to the NHTSA job on Twitter, together with a petition calling for a evaluation due to alleged bias towards the corporate.

CNN reported she obtained loss of life threats.

The case is Banner v. Tesla Inc., 50-2019-CA-0099662, Circuit Court of fifteenth Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, Florida. – Bloomberg