{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0483","record_version":1,"title":"Lawsuits over fatal Tesla Model 3 crash where Autopilot is disputed","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":61.3,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":20.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":4.16,"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,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: BASENOR (Tesla accessories shop blog) · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":3,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: BASENOR (Tesla accessories shop blog) · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"e3f8e764d0937e43690d78c29b2204093e31dfca2808864e8d6adc59c9bc8eb5"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":"Driver-assistance system that requires an attentive driver","safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":"2022-05-16","date_disclosed":"2026-03-19","incident_class":"other","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"On May 16, 2022, a 2021 Tesla Model 3 driven by Hans Von Ohain left the road and crashed. The car struck a tree and caught fire, and Von Ohain died. His passenger escaped. His widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that a defect in Autopilot caused the crash. Tesla's motion to dismiss says event data shows Autopilot was not engaged at the time of the crash. Tesla also cites the driver's blood-alcohol level, which the crash report put at three times the legal limit. Tesla says it could not inspect the event data recorder until September 3, 2025. The plaintiff's lawyers have reportedly stated they are no longer pursuing an Autopilot defect claim. Whether Autopilot was engaged, and what caused the crash, remain disputed in these sources and are not settled by them.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"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":"severe","severity_because":"Test: safety of life. The fatal crash of the driver is stated in the source.","harm_class":["bodily"],"affected_description":"One driver fatality; surviving passenger with severe injuries","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":"irreversible","downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.basenor.com/blogs/news/tesla-moves-to-dismiss-autopilot-lawsuit-driver-was-drunk-system-was-off","publisher":"BASENOR - Tesla Accessories","date":"2026-03-19","type":"press","title":"Tesla Moves to Dismiss Autopilot Lawsuit: Driver Was Drunk, System Was Off - BASENOR - Tesla Accessories","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"},{"url":"https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/3838/tesla-asks-colorado-court-to-dismiss-autopilot-lawsuit-citing-drunk-driving-and-inactive-fsd","publisher":"Not a Tesla App","date":"2026-03-23","type":"press","title":"Tesla Asks Colorado Court to Dismiss Autopilot Lawsuit, Citing Drunk Driving and Inactive FSD - Not a Tesla App","archived_url":null},{"url":"https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2026/hans-von-ohain-killed-crash-drunk-tesla.shtml","publisher":"Car Complaints","date":"2026-03-24","type":"press","title":"Hans Von Ohain Killed in Crash By Driving Drunk, Argues Tesla - Car Complaints","archived_url":null}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.intended_use":"C","event.date_occurred":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.reversibility":"C","context.industry":"C","context.country":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Autopilot is a driver-assistance system. It requires an attentive, sober driver behind the wheel."}],"event.date_occurred":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"On May 16, 2022, Hans Von Ohain was driving his 2021 Tesla Model 3 with neighbor Erik Rossiter in the passenger seat."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"While his passenger managed to escape with severe injuries, Von Ohain tragically perished in the fire."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"Von Ohain was killed while his passenger was able to escape."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"Von Ohain was killed while his passenger was able to escape."}],"impact.reversibility":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"While his passenger managed to escape with severe injuries, Von Ohain tragically perished in the fire."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"For context, Tesla vehicles log detailed data — including whether driver-assistance features are active — that can be retrieved and presented as evidence in litigation."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"The Hans Von Ohain Tesla lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado: Nora Bass, et al., v. Tesla, Inc., et al."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"Von Ohain was killed while his passenger was able to escape."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"Von Ohain was killed while his passenger was able to escape."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":2,"quote":"On May 16, 2022, Hans Von Ohain was driving his 2021 Tesla Model 3 with neighbor Erik Rossiter in the passenger seat."},{"source_index":2,"quote":"The Model 3 event data recorder showed the vehicle was traveling 88 mph within the five seconds of crashing into a tree and catching fire."},{"source_index":1,"quote":"While his passenger managed to escape with severe injuries, Von Ohain tragically perished in the fire."},{"source_index":2,"quote":"Filed by Nora Bass, wife of Hans Von Ohain, the Colorado wrongful death lawsuit alleges the crash and Ohain's death were caused by a defective Tesla vehicle, especially the Autopilot system."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"According to Tesla's filing, newly surfaced evidence shows the system was not engaged at the time of the fatal collision, and the driver was found to be well above the legal blood-alcohol limit."},{"source_index":2,"quote":"According to the 400-page Tesla crash report released by the Colorado State Patrol, Von Ohain was driving drunk and had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit."},{"source_index":2,"quote":"Tesla was unable to inspect the EDR [event data recorder] for the vehicle until September 3, 2025 and the data definitively proved that Autopilot was not engaged at the time of the accident."},{"source_index":2,"quote":"Tesla told the judge lawyers for the plaintiff have now confirmed they are no longer “pursuing an autopilot defect claim.”"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Sources are press articles plus a report of Tesla's own motion; no government finding on the cause is quoted. Whether Autopilot was engaged is disputed: Tesla's data claim is stated by Tesla and the plaintiff's lawsuit claims the opposite, so no engagement state is recorded as fact. Cause of the crash is not established; no root cause, trigger or responsible party is written. The sources do not state an autonomy level, lifecycle stage or deployment context, so those fields are omitted. Autopilot is described as driver assistance, not as an autonomous agent, so agent_involved and failure_class are omitted. Incident class is set to other as a judgement because no closed category fits a vehicle crash dispute. Date disclosed and date detected are not stated and are omitted; press article dates are not used as disclosure dates. Severity severe is a judgement based on the fatality (safety of life). Risks are left empty because no closed risk matches the sources cleanly. Only two controls are recorded, both from sources describing them without showing them failing or being bypassed in this incident. No remediation is reported. Blood-alcohol figures and speed come from a crash report as reported by press and are not independently verified here. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: BASENOR (Tesla accessories shop blog) · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"automotive","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":"went_wrong","text":"The widow's lawsuit alleges that a defective Autopilot system caused the crash and the death.","quote":"Filed by Nora Bass, wife of Hans Von Ohain, the Colorado wrongful death lawsuit alleges the crash and Ohain's death were caused by a defective Tesla vehicle, especially the Autopilot system.","source_index":2,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The driver died in the crash while the passenger escaped.","quote":"Von Ohain was killed while his passenger was able to escape.","source_index":2,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"Tesla told the court the plaintiff's lawyers no longer pursue an Autopilot defect claim.","quote":"Tesla told the judge lawyers for the plaintiff have now confirmed they are no longer “pursuing an autopilot defect claim.”","source_index":2,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.basenor.com/blogs/news/tesla-moves-to-dismiss-autopilot-lawsuit-driver-was-drunk-system-was-off","https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/3838/tesla-asks-colorado-court-to-dismiss-autopilot-lawsuit-citing-drunk-driving-and-inactive-fsd","https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2026/hans-von-ohain-killed-crash-drunk-tesla.shtml"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Hans Von Ohain drives the 2021 Model 3 with a passenger.","quote":"On May 16, 2022, Hans Von Ohain was driving his 2021 Tesla Model 3 with neighbor Erik Rossiter in the passenger seat.","source_index":2,"when":"2022-05-16"},{"text":"The event data recorder was turned over to the plaintiff's counsel and expert by the Colorado State Patrol.","quote":"The EDR was turned over to Plaintiffs’ counsel’s firm and retained expert by Colorado State Patrol in July 2022.","source_index":2,"when":"2022-07"},{"text":"The widow filed a lawsuit against Tesla.","quote":"Despite his severe intoxication, Von Ohain's widow filed a lawsuit against Tesla in May 2024.","source_index":1,"when":"2024-05"},{"text":"Tesla was allowed to remove the computer chip from the damaged event data recorder.","quote":"That conclusion was reached from the vehicle data, but finally in September 2025 Tesla was allowed to remove the computer chip from the Model 3’s damaged event data recorder.","source_index":2,"when":"2025-09"},{"text":"Tesla inspected the event data recorder, which Tesla says shows Autopilot was not engaged.","quote":"Tesla was unable to inspect the EDR [event data recorder] for the vehicle until September 3, 2025 and the data definitively proved that Autopilot was not engaged at the time of the accident.","source_index":2,"when":"2025-09-03"},{"text":"Tesla told the court the plaintiff's lawyers no longer pursue an Autopilot defect claim.","quote":"Tesla told the judge lawyers for the plaintiff have now confirmed they are no longer “pursuing an autopilot defect claim.”","source_index":2,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.basenor.com/blogs/news/tesla-moves-to-dismiss-autopilot-lawsuit-driver-was-drunk-system-was-off","https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/3838/tesla-asks-colorado-court-to-dismiss-autopilot-lawsuit-citing-drunk-driving-and-inactive-fsd","https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2026/hans-von-ohain-killed-crash-drunk-tesla.shtml"]}}