{"schema_version":"0.9.0","id":"LR-2026-0233","record_version":4,"title":"Tesla Cybercab strikes water-filled pothole on first reported crash","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":50.3,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":6.72,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-21","extraction_run_id":null},"system":{"model_name":"Tesla Cybercab","model_version":null,"developer":"Tesla","harness":"Tesla robotaxi (Cybercab)","tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":"Public roads in Austin, Texas, with a safety monitor on board","autonomy_level":"supervised-auto","guardrails_present":["safety_monitor"],"deployment_context":"production","tier":"provider","lifecycle_stage":"production","integration_type":"embedded","intended_use":"Driverless robotaxi passenger service","safeguard_state":"Video-only perception; no lidar scanners","production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-10-21","incident_class":"operational_error","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":true,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A Tesla Cybercab robotaxi in Austin drove at about 5 mph into a large, water-filled pothole and was damaged.","tags":["robotaxi","pothole","sensor-limitation","video-only-perception"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":false,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"minor: Vehicle damage only, with no passengers aboard and no third party touched, contained to one operator's vehicle.","harm_class":["operational"],"affected_description":"the Cybercab vehicle itself; no passengers aboard","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.statesman.com/business/article/tesla-cybercab-crash-austin-nhtsa-robotaxi-texas-22484471.php","publisher":"news search (Google News index)","date":"2026-10-21","type":"press","title":"Tesla Cybercab hits pothole in Austin, raising questions about sensors","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.model_name":"C","system.harness":"C","system.permissions_scope":"C","system.guardrails_present":"C","system.tier":"D","system.lifecycle_stage":"D","system.integration_type":"D","system.intended_use":"C","system.safeguard_state":"C","system.developer":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.tags":"C","event.near_miss":"C","event.agent_involved":"C","event.summary":"C","event.incident_class":"D","event.date_disclosed":"A","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"D","context.industry":"C","context.denominator_available":"D","context.country":"C","impact.severity_because":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"system.model_name":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"system.harness":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla said its Cybercab was damaged when it drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water."}],"system.permissions_scope":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers."}],"system.autonomy_level":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers."}],"system.guardrails_present":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers."}],"system.deployment_context":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"system.lifecycle_stage":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"system.integration_type":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla robotaxis rely only on video."}],"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"system.safeguard_state":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla robotaxis rely only on video."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla said its Cybercab was damaged when it drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Lidar scanners, which Tesla robotaxis lack, have been used by other companies to detect such obstacles, scan their surroundings and observe road surfaces and potholes."}],"event.near_miss":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla said its Cybercab was damaged when it drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla said its Cybercab was damaged when it drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla said its Cybercab was damaged when it drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla Inc. reported its first-ever Cybercab crash to federal safety regulators just days after the purpose-built robotaxi hit the road."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Nine of them, including the Cybercab crash, occurred in Austin."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"published: 2026-10-21"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No source states who first noticed the crash (detection_method unknown), the date it occurred, any containment, notification beyond the NHTSA report, or remediation, so those fields are omitted. event.trigger omitted: no source names a cause. event.failure_class omitted: no agent-mechanism taxonomy value is stated; the vehicle simply failed to detect a pothole. root_cause omitted: no source names what failed; the video-only perception limitation is context, not a stated failed control. system.model_version, impact.direct_loss_usd, records_exposed, third_parties_affected_count, and all context.incident_evidence/regulatory/coverage fields are unstated. system.tier and event.date_disclosed are derived by rule and not written. incident_class operational_error is a grade-D classification from the vehicle acting unintentionally with no adversary named. system.tier: provider by rule (the developer is named as the operator). [aggregated by deepseek-chat, aggregate-2026-09-27.1, 2026-10-21] system.model_name: classified from described behaviour. system.lifecycle_stage: production. system.integration_type: classified from described behaviour. system.autonomy_level: a source states the agent acted while a person watched or could stop it. system.deployment_context: production. event.responsible_party: provider. event.incident_class: a source states data or a system was left in a wrong state, deleted, corrupted or acted on unintentionally, and names no adversary and no goal of the agent's own. event.trigger: no source states a cause. event.detection_method: no source says who first noticed. context.systemic_exposure: classified from described behaviour. context.denominator_available: no denominator is available for this incident. [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-22 in the corrections review: a judgement inferred by us that no source states was cleared] [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-22 in the corrections review: a value marked as inferred is stated by a cited sentence; regraded; citations to sentences about a different event were removed]"},"context":{"industry":"Autonomous vehicle / robotaxi transportation","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"A Tesla Cybercab robotaxi ran on Austin public roads with a safety monitor aboard and no passengers, using video-only perception instead of lidar.","quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"It drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water and was damaged, failing to detect the road hazard.","quote":"According to its report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla said its Cybercab was damaged when it drove at about 5 mph into a large pothole filled with water.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"Damage was confined to the Cybercab itself; no passengers were aboard and no other party is described as affected.","quote":"The vehicle was occupied by a safety monitor but had no passengers.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"deepseek-chat","prompt_version":"aggregate-2026-09-27.1","extracted_at":"2026-10-21","source_urls":["https://www.statesman.com/business/article/tesla-cybercab-crash-austin-nhtsa-robotaxi-texas-22484471.php"]}}