{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0722","record_version":1,"title":"Tesla settles lawsuit over fatal Autopilot crash","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":49.8,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":6.0,"completeness":3.2,"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":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"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":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"94da6275aafbc05b20d596ea767f23490965c75a026138886475008bc283f5d7"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"Tesla","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":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":"2023-02-18","date_disclosed":"2026-09-17","incident_class":"other","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A Tesla Model S with Autopilot enabled, driven by Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California, hit a fire truck responding to an earlier accident on February 18, 2023. Martinez was killed in the 70-mph crash. Data recovered from the car showed Autopilot had been engaged roughly 12 minutes before the crash. The lawsuit alleged that Tesla and Elon Musk misrepresented the capabilities of the Level 2 driver-assistance system. Tesla contested the claims, saying Martinez had ignored warnings in the owner's manual and active warnings inside the vehicle. Tesla has since settled the lawsuit before a jury trial, and details of the settlement remain confidential.","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":"Safety of life test met: the driver was killed in the crash, and the passenger was seriously injured.","harm_class":["bodily"],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.carscoops.com/2026/09/tesla-settles-potentially-costly-lawsuit-over-autopilot-death/","publisher":"CarScoops","date":"2026-09-17","type":"press","title":"Tesla Settles Potentially Costly Lawsuit Over Autopilot Death - CarScoops","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"C","event.date_occurred":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","context.country":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The lawsuit took issue with how Tesla advertised its Autopilot system, and suggested that the 31-year-old would not have been killed had the system performed as advertised."}],"event.date_occurred":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On February 18, 2023, Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez was driving his 2014 Tesla Model S on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California, when the EV slammed into a fire truck responding to an earlier accident."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Martinez was killed in the 70-mph crash, while his brother in the passenger seat suffered serious injuries."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On February 18, 2023, Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez was driving his 2014 Tesla Model S on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California, when the EV slammed into a fire truck responding to an earlier accident."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Lawsuits that turn into jury trials can be costly, and likely to avoid a potentially astronomical payout, Tesla has settled a lawsuit filed in relation to the death of a 31-year-old killed while driving a Model S with Autopilot enabled."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Martinez was killed in the 70-mph crash, while his brother in the passenger seat suffered serious injuries."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Martinez was killed in the 70-mph crash, while his brother in the passenger seat suffered serious injuries."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"On February 18, 2023, Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez was driving his 2014 Tesla Model S on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California, when the EV slammed into a fire truck responding to an earlier accident."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Martinez was killed in the 70-mph crash, while his brother in the passenger seat suffered serious injuries."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Data recovered from the wrecked Model S revealed that Autopilot had been engaged roughly 12 minutes before the crash."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The lawsuit alleged that both Tesla and company boss Elon Musk had misrepresented the capabilities of the Level 2 driver-assistance system, causing Martinez to place too much trust in it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Tesla fiercely contested the claims, saying it wasn't at fault given that Martinez had ignored warnings in the owner's manual and active warnings while inside the vehicle."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"As you may expect, details about the settlement remain confidential."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The sources describe a Level 2 driver-assistance system (Autopilot) in a consumer car, not an autonomous AI agent, so failure_class, secondary classes, agent_involved and the agent-specific fields are left out. No source states the root cause, the trigger, the detection method, the autonomy level in the closed list, the model version, the harness, the tools, or any control that held, failed or was missing; those fields are omitted and no risks or links are assigned. The date the settlement was reached and the date it was disclosed are not stated; the article date of 2026-09-17 is not used as a value. The severity is a judgement: the death meets the safety-of-life test for severe. The deployment_context production, the incident_class other, the model_name Autopilot (a product name, not a model) and the country US (from California) are my judgements. Settlement terms are confidential, and no direct loss is stated. The 2019 Florida case and its $243 million verdict concern a different incident and are excluded. The source is a press report, not the company's own account. [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 (Publisher not yet named · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"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},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Autopilot was engaged roughly 12 minutes before the crash.","quote":"Data recovered from the wrecked Model S revealed that Autopilot had been engaged roughly 12 minutes before the crash.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The Model S crashed into a fire truck responding to an earlier accident.","quote":"On February 18, 2023, Genesis Giovanni Mendoza Martinez was driving his 2014 Tesla Model S on Interstate 680 in Contra Costa County, California, when the EV slammed into a fire truck responding to an earlier accident.","source_index":0,"when":"2023-02-18"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.carscoops.com/2026/09/tesla-settles-potentially-costly-lawsuit-over-autopilot-death/"]}}