Lawsuits over fatal Tesla Model 3 crash where Autopilot is disputed
Preliminary Why: 1 report: BASENOR (Tesla accessories shop blog) · subject to change · 1 independent report
Developing: a major or severe case captured in the last 72 hours. Later changes are logged on the corrections page.
Status: action reported, no fix
No source states: loss or records, developer and model, agent tool, could do, deployer.
Severity severe: Test: safety of life. The fatal crash of the driver is stated in the source.
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.
What happened
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Evidence
No source states: what the AI was doing, how it was caught, when it was found, how many records were exposed, the direct loss, a count of the other parties affected, any court case, the cause, what set it off.
Show the full account: 6 items from the primary sources
What happened, in order
- 2022-07 The event data recorder was turned over to the plaintiff's counsel and expert by the Colorado State Patrol.
- 2022-05-16 Hans Von Ohain drives the 2021 Model 3 with a passenger.
- 2024-05 The widow filed a lawsuit against Tesla.
- 2025-09 Tesla was allowed to remove the computer chip from the damaged event data recorder.
- 2025-09-03 Tesla inspected the event data recorder, which Tesla says shows Autopilot was not engaged.
Not dated in the sources:
- Tesla told the court the plaintiff's lawyers no longer pursue an Autopilot defect claim.
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The AI system
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Notes on gaps
Sources are press articles plus a report of Tesla's own motion; no government finding on the cause is quoted. No remediation is reported. Blood-alcohol figures and speed come from a crash report as reported by press and are not independently verified here.
LR-2026-0483 · version 1 · published 2026-11-01 after automatic checks; not yet checked field by field by a person · JSON